teacup 2003

This teacup and saucer was made by Robert Lazzarini, who was born in 1965, and it’s an uncanny object. What must it have been like for Lazzarini to make this? It looks like your everyday tea set, all frilly and floral, but the artist has distorted the expected geometry of the objects. I imagine the artist thinking, ‘I'm going to take this thing, and twist it, and see what happens if I pull it this way or that.’ The artist creates a disturbing sense of movement as if time is warping it from one side to the other. It makes me think about how so much of art is about slowing down our perception, making us reconsider the familiar. By distorting a common object like this, Lazzarini makes us question the very nature of perception and reality. Artists are constantly playing with our expectations. This is one of the things that makes art such a powerful and thought-provoking thing.