Telephone Sheep Exhibit by Artist Jean Luc Cornec

Posted on July 19, 2008 by Doug Gunzelmann in Art, Concept+Design

Featured in the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt in 2006 Jean Luc Cornec’s Telephone Sheep were a sensation that swept web. We’ve decided to revisit this exhibit to open a dialogue on the importance of art, design, and creativity in regards to the green movement. Jean Luc’s sheep were constructed of older model rotary telephones and their accompanying cords wrapped around sheep formed under structures. The phone on the cradle strikingly resembles a head in this context with the melted and bent hand piece creating great hooves. In this new environment the out of date phones have taken on an entirely new life due to our shift in perspective. The ability to see materials outside of their traditional roles is key to reducing the mass of products our society currently consumes and reusing that which surrounds us everyday to its maximum potential.

Postured in all the ways you would see sheep on a typical farm Jean Luc has evoked a surreal representation of life using otherwise lifeless forms.

The Museum für Kommunikation focuses on the growth and change of the communications world and exhibits various modes of communication that have existed over the years. Ranging from antique mailboxes, an original Bell telephone, a piece of undersea communications cable, postal stamps and postcards, Jean Luc Cornec’s exhibit and more curiosities of this ilk.

I recently had a debate with a friend on the importance of art and design. While on the one hand art can be seen as a form of entertainment and pleasure, which may seem trivial to some, there can be a much more functional element to it as well. Art and design occur from the need to express, communicate, and question the human experience. An exhibit may probe into society’s values and practices. Quality art should in the very least make us think.

This may seem like heavy conversation while looking at these playful sheep, but Cornec’s piece is a perfect gateway into thought provoking art that makes us shift our view on the function of material. The prevalence of upcycling, repurposing, green design, engineering, and architecture addressing global climate change that we are seeing on a daily basis is the fruit of creative thinking. Work like the Telephone Sheep force us to see new uses and value to otherwise expired products. The importance of art can stretch far beyond entertaining some web surfers or museum patrons. It can spawn in any of us the ability to think with a more malleable mind. Perhaps in even a simple way on a daily basis we can look at common refuse and see further life, another form, continuing function…less waste.

Artists and designers will play an immensely important role in our world as we move forward towards more sustainable ideology. Creativity, along with technology and ethical growth, can produce astounding results towards a more eco-friendly means of existence.

Tags:

Art, jean luc cornec, telephone sheep

15 Responses to “ Telephone Sheep Exhibit by Artist Jean Luc Cornec ”

Madelyn

14. Aug, 2008

This art work is really unique, fun and simply great. Thanks.

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cyra

03. Sep, 2008

thanks to Jean Luc Comec for the amazing creation of outdated technological sheep.. what an eye opener!

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martin

06. Sep, 2008

hi friend i am srinu nice post

it’s new on blog ..!

good ..!

Reply to this comment
Ann

08. Sep, 2008

How brilliant! How uplifting!

Jean Luc Cornec has enriched the world with his imagination.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

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Robert in Palm Harbor

08. Sep, 2008

Ba-a-ad Jean, very ba-a-ad, Robert said sheepishly.

-Robert

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catherine todd

16. Sep, 2008

Wonderful exhibit, wonderful sculptures, and you have written one of the best pieces about this on the web. Thanks!

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Jim in Boston

03. Oct, 2008

This is so creative. It’s awesome to see how seemingly outdated and useless equipment can have a new breath of life. Thanks!

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Judi Wagler

28. Oct, 2008

Thought this was quite neat. I’ve worked in the telecommunications (telephone companies) since 1975 and I would be proud to have such a display. Our grandchildren will not remember such a thing as a rotary phone.

Not baaaaaaaaaaaahd.

Judi

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Judi Wagler

28. Oct, 2008

I thought this display quite neat. I’ve worked in the telephone industry since 1975. Our grandchildren will not remember the rotary phones.

Not baaaaaaaaahd.

Judi

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Sam

30. Oct, 2008

it’s amazing art. and beautiful. but it scares me U_U

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bidgee malone

10. Mar, 2009

excellent work, great to see old materials used in such a unique way…i really like the single black sheep!

Bridgee

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Site's linking to this post:

Baaaahd ass trash art « everydaytrash

18. Aug, 2008

[...] Baaaahd ass trash art Keith R. over at The Temas Blog turned me on to these amazing telephone sheep. I guess I missed it when TreeHugger and others posted on these in June. Better late than never. These funky and adorable hunks of trash art are part of a Jean Luc Cornec installation at the Frankfurt Museum of Communications in Germany. These things are just plain amazing. For a more intellectualized analysis, check out this GreenUpgrader post. [...]

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A Arte do Lixo « O Mourinho

20. Mar, 2009

[...] Eis o que se pode fazer com uma boa dose de imaginação e antigos telefones. A ideia de criar estas ovelhas, reutilizando telefones, como forma de chamar a nossa atenção para os milhões de objectos que se acumulam no planeta, bem distante do alcance dos nossos olhos, foi o que pretendeu o artista francês Jean-Luc Cornec. [...]

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Divulgação de ideias criativas, cortesia do LCM (#1) « Maria de Lurdes Fonseca

21. Mar, 2009

[...] Clicar na imagem ou ver aqui. [...]

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Jean-Luc Cornec « No Rules No Shame

30. Jun, 2009

[...] http://greenupgrader.com/2492/telephone-sheep-exhibit-by-artist-jean-luc-cornec/ Leave a [...]

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