Now a days, anything can be used as part of the art making process. Artists are very inventive in their use of materials and tools. Some artists stick to classic art materials. Others use and often subvert found objects. Sometimes materials and tools not commonly associated with art are used. Kara Walker for instance has used overhead projectors in her pieces. They “created a space where the viewer’s shadow would also be projected into the scene—so that, maybe, they would, you know, become captured and implicated in a way that is very didactic. Overhead projectors are a didactic tool; they’re schoolroom tools. So, they’re about conveying facts. The work that I do is about projecting fictions into those facts.”
Here is a list of possible materials and tools:
- canvas
- paint
- pens
- pencils
- charcoal
- panels
- screens
- clay
- plaster
- wood
- plexi glass
- ink
- computer
- software
- camera
- the body
- Found objects
- printing press
- carving tools
- stone
Elissa Dahlgren 