Artist Center: Allora & Calzadilla

Allora & Calzadilla are a pair of artists who have worked together since 1995 to create sculptures, photographs, and many different types of art together. They approach visual art as a set of experiments that test different ideas. They test authorship, nationality, borders and democracy that describe today’s increasingly global and consumerist society. There works are done as a mix of sculpture, photography, performance, sound, and video.

Allora’s and Calzadilla’s work draw historical, cultural, and political metaphors out of the way they do their art, either with photography or with another form of capturing the moment. Their works explore the complex associations between an object and its meaning. A lot of their work that I have seen has dealt with war, such as with tanks and helmets. They make those objects into something else, such as turning a tank into a giant treadmill (shown below). I have also noticed the theme of music in their work, which can be seen in their work dealing with pianos (shown below).

Allora’s and Calzadilla’s work shows the world how to look at these types of objects in a different light. It is as if they are trying to make them humorous instead of their normal associations. Each work of art they do challenges the meaning of the original form, and it makes the viewer think about the object differently than they would have without seeing in this light. This is what helps make Allora’s and Calzadilla’s work so famous, that is changes people’s views on objects and helps them see past what they are to what they could become.