Beer Bottle Rock Shop Stalagmite Rock Club Shelving Unit #1

You can see that this work of art is placed in front of a glass wall. This allows you to enjoy the art from both indoors and outdoors. Here and there, you can see the reflection of the Brazilian brickwork of the wall opposite the work thanks to the openings in the bricks. For instance, when the sun shines, abundant light comes through all the openings. This illuminates the beer bottles beautifully. When arranging exhibitions in a museum, you have to pay attention to all sorts of things. You want to make the rooms exciting, so there are things for people to discover. You also try to create a certain logic, to bring structure to the artworks and not just have everything all jumbled together.

Beauty is also important. It's especially vital in an art museum. Colour, material and lighting must all be considered as well as sightlines – imaginary lines that can be drawn from the observer’s eyes to what they are viewing. It is essential to consider sightlines in other situations too, such as in the theatre. The wings should be invisible to the audience as much as possible. This maintains the illusion of the performance. Urban planning and landscape architecture also involve paying attention to sightlines. If these were ignored, public space would be a huge mess.

Within buildings, say a museum, you always have to deal with possibilities and limitations. One example of a possibility is having a large amount of space available. On the other hand, a limitation might be that the floor is so unusual that it attracts a lot of attention, distracting from the artworks. 

These beer bottle stalagmites are sold outside Andy's exhibitions, on the street, through his studio, via his website and in shops at art fairs.

The bottles in this artwork have had leftover plaster from the workshop poured over them and the beer that was inside was drunk in Andy’s studio. They are considered forgeries because they look like quickly-made items and display much repetition. A sort of copy of the much larger totemic plaster sculptures that have been shown in some of Andy's exhibitions.

The totemic sculptures referred to required much more work and took many months for Andy to complete. These smaller bottles are sold at low prices, raising the question of whether the bottles were made by Andy or are fakes. This is all part of Andy's artistry. 

A totem is a symbol that conveys a sacred or mythical meaning. When you look at each bottle and embrace the totem concept, the work can take on a certain significance. If you truly open yourself up to this way of looking at the artwork, it can really make you pause for thought. You don't then see shelves full of beer bottles, you see five levels teeming with mystical objects. 

Andy spent years working in a record store in his birthplace, the English town of Bedford. During that time, he discovered noise-punk band Ice, Sea, Dead People. The band regularly performed in Andy's installations. One time, they used all the bottles from the beer that had been drunk that evening to exhibit. This collaboration between artist and musician is reminiscent of a project by another Andy – Andy Warhol, who collaborated with musicians too. He did this with performances by the US rock group The Velvet Underground and German singer Nico. In 1966 and 1967, Andy Warhol organised a series of multimedia events under the name The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. 

A casting director selects the best candidates for roles in films, TV series, commercials and plays. He has a knack for finding the right people. It doesn't matter how good an actor is, they still need to be the ‘right type' for the role. Casting directors work with various clients, such as film directors, producers and photographers. Pretend that you're a casting director. Take a look at all the bottles here. Which ones would you cast in which roles?

There's another artwork with a mineral formation type element. It's a stalactite of kitchen utensils. A stalactite hangs, like an icicle, while a stalagmite stands on the ground. 

A pastry cook needs to be skilful. The display case is filled with appealing delicacies. You need good motor skills to be able to decorate cakes, sweets and pastries well. It takes a trained hand to apply pastry cream and icing. After all, such decorations are meant to make the food more attractive. The bottles on these shelves also have lovely colours and beautiful shapes.

The bottles look a little bit like ice creams. All different colours and the drip effect, resembling an ice cream you order in a restaurant. These types of ice cream sundaes often come in cheerful colours too, which drip all over each other.

Patchwork is a craft technique. A patch is a small piece of fabric. Patches of cotton fabric in all colours and sizes are sewn together. Patchwork offers countless possibilities thanks to all the different colours, prints and shapes. Very similar to Andy's plaster works, actually.