CryptoVisual

A Guide to the visual art of Joe Griffith...


Giant Squid Decoy
At first glance, I thought how can a project be in the making for 10 years but never even make it to the experimental stage?  Then, I realized that it is a very complex concept that requires a lot of money to produce.  It seems that the original project will not be made; however, there is a new version of a squid project.  The new version would have a giant squid sculpture outside the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa.  This squid would be a real-life size of the original squid and have sounds from it's environment coming from surrounding speakers. The difference between the original and the new version seems to be drastic.  I don't think they are even the same project at all, just the same idea of using a Giant Squid.  The first project seemed to be more experimental and the second is more of an art piece.  It is like an artist throwing away a project but trying to keep the same idea in mind to create a similar one.  I enjoyed the concept behind the first project because I think experimental art projects are a great way to learn new things.  


How Did You Come to This?
How can you recreate a 10 foot tall dream machine?  Just ask the people form Experimental Skeleton.  Seeing the images again from the exhibition show that an incredible amount of work was put into creating this sculpture.  It is one of the largest recreated dream machines, that's something to be proud of.  


Sugar Bells
This collaborative project called Sugar Bells was exhibited in 1995.  As it seems to be the beginning of Griffiths work with experimental art, I found it to be a pretty interesting concept.  A glass xylophone made out of bottles filled with different levels of saturation of sugar solutions.  A large-scale xylophone that could be turned into candy. Hence the name "Sugar Bells."  If the project was left unused, then the solutions would turn into rock candy. Although this was produced about 15 years ago, I think the idea of making musical art that has potential to turn into candy was a success.