SCULPTURE PATHWAY
The three dimensional impact of sculpture making allows me to think through doing. The limitless variety of methods, for example, metal, wood, paper, ceramics or using materials as obscure as shadows and air provide complete creative freedom. The discipline of sculpture physically translates ideas and visions into forms or reality.
THE SCULPTURAL CONDITION (week 10)
Thursday 15th November
Project brief:
Sculpture is most typically associated with three-dimensional form, material manipulation and object making. In the latter half of the 20th century however, sculptural practice became increasingly inseparable from the space in which the forms were conceived and exhibited. Contemporary practice continues this spatial investigation and in this project, we will consider many concepts related to site-specificity and installation.
Your site-specific work will respond to and engage with the studio, or with permission, other sites at Archway. Creating site-specific works involves planning, mapping and organisation. Drawing, measurement and model-making are other frequently used techniques. Research into the history and social context of a site you use is also important. You will be allowed considerable scope for ambition—with there will be a risk assessment refresher.
Heading into uni today, I head the project brief and was looking forward to specialising in sculpture and the idea of interactive/performance sculptures have always interested me. I already had quite a few ideas and started looking at Andreas Zingerle's work which reminded me of Kasie Campbell. I particularly love Kasie Campbell as she uses materials that are dominated and associated with men- during the lecture, I kept her in the back of my mind. From the lecture, I was drawn to Lygia Clark as I love how her interactional work has no instruction yet invites audience participation; she invented the term “relational objects” and this concept really intrigued me and I was thinking how I could involve it my own work during the next few weeks.
Physical interaction has always attracted me to certain art as there is a sense of taking the art of the plinth and out of the gallery, almost allowing it to exist in our world instead of keeping it alien to the public. My communication is very much physical in the way that I’m attracted to sculptures and installations that allows the viewer to step into the artist's mind and physically pick up on their emotions and intentions.
Monday 19th November
After being specialised in the sculpture pathway, I was keen to get stuck in straight away and start getting my hands dirty, but I started, as I always do, by creating a mind map and mood boards, recording every single idea about concept and materials so I could begin experimenting.
Claire Watson’s artistic statement:
"Language and art are tools, and playthings. I make objects to see what they will look like, but mainly to give form to ideas that can’t be put to words, and names to images that arrive in the imagination wholly unexpectedly"
Claire Watson’s glove sculpture take this unusual form that suggest a second skin and the doll-making technique is an interesting method to exaggerate the personification. The scale of the sculptures intrigue me, the fact that they are hand sized, while investigating Claire Watson’s methodologies and ideologies, I wanted to experiment while scale and having something big enough to wear.
Tuesday 20th November
Initially, I was interested with the idea of personification and anthropomorphic qualities that could be translated into a sculpture. I limited myself to only find domestic materials in m y house; the first material that jumped out Kat me was latex gloves, I thought their flexible/mouldable texture and form would make them perfect to explore this idea of making a sculpture seem conscious. I experimented with what I filled them with, for example, the glove would 'relax' differently depending if it contained water, air, shaving cream or ice. An installation of gloved hand would produce interesting outcomes; doing something inspired by Luzinterruptus '1,400 latex glove' would engage and investigation with light and moment- how kinetic energy can hinder or height gah overall effect of a sculptural piece.
Interested with manipulating materials, depending and how tight I pulled the string, the s were more defined. These almost juxpoasing materials created a harmonious feel despite creating quite a disturbing image. The piece vaguely suggest a human form-like-flesh- looks touch but can burst. I played with the lighting behind with the photography which created luminous, almost unsettling shadows and glows; I was imagining a whole room filled with these glowing gloves hanging in this sombre way. I reread one of my favourite poems 'The Falling leave' by Margaret Postgate Cole, which is an extended metaphor for the conflict between the violent imagery of the Great War- an ode to the fallen soldiers. While re-readign the poem, lines such as "They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon" and "Slain by no wind of age or pestilence" conjured sombre imagery of these falling soldiers and these sorrowful events. After imagining filling a room with these glowing gloves, looking like they are hanging from a noose, I thought it represent these souls hanging from above (heaven maybe).
Wednesday 21st November
Thinking about performance interaction:
By blowing up the glove, it was a starting point for an interactive project; creating a performance between peoples hands, therefore creating a sense of communication in a physical sense.
The idea of performance art really intrigued me and how something could be engaging in both a physical sense and a social one. This theme of hands had me thinking about the actions of hands and in the larger sense of the word, the actions of humanity; a microcosm to represent characteristics and consequences, particularly to do with things that are hand made or problems that were created by man (e.g pollution, global warming, urbanisation e.c.t).
By creating a giant hand illustrates the growing consequences of our action. The giant hand would create a spontaneous and unscripted performance from each viewer who put it on. Planning on having many people try on the sculpture almost helps share the burden and not blame single people- this idea of letting go of the past and blaming and instead learning from history. I'm drawn to collaborative work that requires audience participation in order for the sculpture to be a sculpture.
Talking with hands:
Talking with hands is more inclusive and the physical connection almost heighten the communication- The language of senses.
“The hand of the human may be distinguished by the precision grip; however, the humanity of the hand, Heidegger argued, lies in its possession by the word. ‘Man does not “have” hands, but the hand holds the essence of man, because the word as the essential realm of the hand is the ground of the essence of man’ (Heidegger 1992: 80). Thus language holds the hand, and the hand holds man.” (p. 113 uit: Making: Making Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture van Tim Ingold, 2013)
'More hands make less work', 2018
This piece represents the evolution of hands in the sense that we invent things to do our work, for example from scrubbing the floor our hands and knees, then comes the invention if the mop. The interaction from peers was a nod to surrealism where we could inevitably end up never lifting up a finger again.
LANGUAGE OF OBJECTS (week11)
Monday 26th November
With all this experimentation surrounding hands, I wanted to switch up the materials I used. the latex glove was a foundation to create from as it provided the mould, however it lacked essence. Then came the idea of creating something with my less dominant hand - in my case, my left hand- and investigation that affected by creation.
Still playing with this idea of creating a skin, a wearable sculpture would increase the physical contact of the viewer as they physically put on the "second skin". The delicateness of the thread reveals and mimics the internal structure of the hand. The overall rough appearance of the hand is due to me using my left hand.
The main concern at the front of my mind for this project and in life in general is the destructive actions of hands. In all the articles/ papers I read and documentaries I watch, I'm most intrigues by ones where the hands of man have affected/destroyed a place or species. my interest in this area is more from a problem solving perspective where I imagine the impossible- solutions. This idea of 'every little helps' inspires my hand series to physically illustrating that when different people interact or wear my sculptures they are almost passing the message on and creating awareness/ a dialogue.
Tuesday 27th November
I continued with this making of wearable sculptures and perhaps creating a structure to contain or destrict the hand from releasing anymore havoc on the world. There is a layer of irony and comedy in these pieces as they are 'man-made' structures that are controlling the hand of man- therefore questioning the hands of those few individuals in control and power- suggesting a generational shift and power struggle in moving forward with what we have and haven't done.
Wednesday 28th November
Thursday 29th November
I wanted to utilise Carters perspective and create these interactive puppets to communicate the social conditioning that happens under our noses. It would be ironic if the audience couldn't interact with them. By controlling the puppet, it provides the audience with a flavour of what its like to control the actions of something/ being in that position of power. Perhaps like in the novel the novel might feel "the doll resembles [themselves].
After reading the novel, even when puppets and puppeteer fade from view, readers are left with a troubling thought that someone might still be pulling the strings; I thought this would be an interesting angle to try and work Ito my performance, making the audience feel uneasy and wonder why everyone who passed the puppets picked them up and controlled them- in a sense to recognised hoe everyone has been conditioned by some degree.
This idea sparked from this novel I'm currently reading, 'The Magic Toyshop', Angela Carter is a rather underrated author, the coming of age story explore the main character (whose 15) discovering where she fits in within society. Carter reveals the flawed underpinning of western culture and exposures the female norm as being subordination of the individual. displays women as sexual beings aside from their domestic roles, exploring the physicality needs of a female.
Brief analysis of The Magic Toyshop:
The theme of individualism and self- rule is present in all of Carter’s novels; Carter introduces her readers to the protagonist in a way which presents them as incomplete resulting in them embarking on a journey to find their true self. “These encountered characters are often grotesques or exaggerated parodies reminiscent of those found in the novels of Charles Dickens or such southern gothic writers as Flannery O’Connor. They also sometimes exhibit the animalistic or supernatural qualities of fairy-tale characters.” [https://www.grin.com/document/270986]. This is evident in The Magic Toyshop as the protagonist Melanie has a huge drop in social status which inevitably results in rash confrontation. When Melanie first arrives at the shop “a black bucket of misery tipped itself up over [her] head” (p. 31) and “part of herself, she thought, was killed” (p. 31) as her protective bubble innocence is popped. In “The Magic Toyshop” Carter challenges realism and its assumptions of it being a “universal” reality by delving into overlapping genres such as myth, fairy tale and romance; the novel subverts from traditional romance as the narrative focuses on Melanie’s sexual awakening rather than happily ever after. “Her speculative and fictitious writing have made it possible for her to question the internalised bygone cultural traditions, through a critical angle. Though the instances of irony are numerous in the novel, Carter had put a great emphasis in the comic revision of the male patriarchal order. The writer’s prior objective through evoking on the make power is to parody and criticise it, rather than to sympathises with it.” (Wiem Krifa) [https://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/article/view/318].
Carter utilises the male perspective to undermine and challenge social norms, which inevitably makes it hard to break them as the men are the ones enforcing them. Carter undercuts society through her characterisation of Uncle Philip and his downfall. “The various doll-like terms that Melanie uses to describe Aunt Margaret in this passage depict her as a personification of perfect femininity within the theatre box of the domestic sphere simply because she is both submissive and maternal.” (Donna Mitchell- Leda or Living Doll? Women as Dolls in Angela Carter’s “The Magic Toyshop”). Uncle Philip is a character who becomes emotionally attached to his creations as he controls and trains them; this is translated into his treatment and oppression of real people. Carter guides the reader to sympathise with the suffering female characters due to the subjugation inflicted by Uncle Philip particularly on Aunt Maggie: “it came to her on her wedding day, like a curse. Her silence’” (p. 37). The night they consummated their marriage, Uncle Philip took ownership of Margret like she was one of his puppets, which follows the fairy tale conventions as Melanie is endangered by the evil figure of Uncle Philip. The motif of puppets is present in Melanie’s first encounter of the house to the very end “she was in the night again and the doll was herself” (p.); Uncle Philip determines the fates of others by controlling their puppet model, further exaggerating his despotism.
Friday 30th November
I feel like my experiment have taken me through the years of hands and only seemed appropriate to investigate with the world current hand status- mechanical hands. However, it comical that m,y representation of a mechanical hand is made of paper, almost mocks the idea as the world did decades ago, as the idea of robots was so ambitious.
It hard keeping up with technology, are we biting off more than we can chew? Will technology end up controlling us instead of the other way round?
gallery x3
THE ELIMINATION OF RECOGNISABLE FORMS (week 12)
Monday 3th December
Spent the majority of the day thinking through doing. After experimenting with the rubber gloves, I wanted to use the material of rubber again but in a different form- balloons. The flexibility and mouldable structure was interesting with tape, tie and even pour concrete in- all achieving different results.
After visiting the Hayward Gallery's 'Shapeshifters' exhibition for the third time now, and Yayoi Kusama’s work in particular intrigues me due to immersive experiences she creates.
Most of the artworks in this exhibition were constructed from translucent materials like glass, acrylic and polyester resins, this exhibition has given been inspiration of another project.
Tuesday 4th December
The turning point in this project was my drastic change of materials. Thoughtout this project I have been very ill and stuck at home and forced to improvise with my material choices. However, by limiting my materials, it produced some unexpected and unplanned outcomes.
Playing with this idea on unrecognisable forms, I wanted to communicate how the illness I have is unrecognisable from the outside and how its catalysed by my anxiety. This idea of interior and exterior communicated mental health crystal clear and the duvet represents how you don't typically see the duvet itself, normally its covered by a duvet cover; therefore there is this sense of concealment and hiding almost. I liked the idea of physically communicating whats goes on in someones mind- in particular mine. The everyday objects suggests and everyday struggle.
Thursday 5th December
Again, the restriction of not being able to go to school and use the workshops had me searching for materials. I found bags of bags in m y kitchen and decided to put them to use instead of binning them and adding to the pollution problem that is ever so growing. The quilt of plastic bags reveal the silhouette of a hand but only when blown up; relating to unrecognisable forms, this piece requires audience participation to turn on the air. This simple act of flicking a switch highlights my point of how all these small act create massive/global consequences. The silhouette of the hand appears almost comical despite the seriousness of the topic being disused. I enjoyed experimenting with a sculpture/installation that blows up and deflates as it incorporates kinetic energy, making the hand look alive/ conscious.
Friday 6th December'Consequences', 2018
This piece was concerning plastic pollution and the clumsiness of human actions and how a careless act can have disastrous consequences. By creating it as an interactive piece, it exaggerates how the its only the actions of mankind that are causing/ catalysing problems like pollution and climate change.
Saturday 7th December'Slumpted', 2018
This piece repurposes a duvet and personifies it. I was inspired by 'The Flesh of things' by Mathew Smith and his shape manipulation. The duvet produces human qualities it the creases and the way it lays slumped against the wall. This alternative skin creates different relationship with the material and subject matter.
Sunday 8th December
White Cube Bermondsey, Darren Almond Time Will Tell
This exhibition was so interesting, the interaction with the space and history harmonised beautifully and played with the idea of abstract and concrete realities which had me leaving the exhibition with my mind ticking all the way home. I particularly loved the sound piece which recorded the working mechanics of the three 18th-century marine timekeepers. The fully functioning machine was an ode to John Cage.
PROGRESS TUTORIALS (week 13)
Feedback on progress:
You were away from college for over two weeks which has obviously affected your response to the project. You have done well fill a sketchbook with experiments at home, having little access to new materials and no workshops. You have been very interested the body, especially the hands, anthropomorphism, personifying filled gloves. Since returning to college, the more inventive mixed bag patterned hand, shows development in scale and a more interesting outcome (inflated bag with hairdryer), a good culmination of all your experiments. Sketchbook is a thorough record of ideas development and experiments.
Research is good, evidence al exhibitions you have visited.
Reflection has gaps due to illness, see below.
Action Plan and Advice:
Sketchbook – try to avoid ‘mood boards’ as it gives the impression you are no looking below the surface, especially overlapping images with cursory comments. It would be better to have research images more sparsely laid out, with you own thoughts and perhaps sketches adjacent to show how the source is influencing you.
Research: http://www.artmonthly.co.uk/magazine/site/issue/september-2014 Hand Signals article As your research is good, make sure you INTEGRATE in your annotations, and include evidence of exhibitions, with press releases and own commentary.
Reflection: as you were ill, don’t fake daily entries but write a summary for each week. Make sure you evaluate – what was successful / needs to be improved – why? What do you want to do next as a result.
Christmas Projet (week 15&16)
Gallery visits through Christmas holiday
Martin Creed 'Toast'
“I feel I can’t know where the good bits are … you just have to try and do everything and then record as much as possible and keep all your shit (laughs). Because I always want to throw it away, because I think it’s all shit, so I try to fight against that. I keep it all and then see, because usually the things you think are good are not good … it’s like self-delusion is one of the most difficult problems of life. So … if you like to work well, you have to trick yourself to not go along with yourself, not trust yourself.” Martin Creed
Chris Burden 'Measured'
Burden’s performance art challenges his own mental and physical limitations. His sculpture really engage space and most use of the whole room. The balancing of the toys almost defy gravity and appear quite a surreal collaboration of materials.
Preparing for 'Room' project
The work and thoughts I had developed over the Christmas holiday was smoothly Segway into the 'Room' project. Over the Christmas break, there were serval break ins around my street and area, two of which affected me was they were my car and house window. This project began with an unfortunate event however, I wanted to make the most of a bad situation. The commonness in the events invloed windows and this idea of entry point. I started to come up with a solution to fill gap in my car window as the actual window couldn't be delivered until the following week.
The whole experience had me question why me, why my car? I began thinking of materials that could translate how I felt but also have the same affect as shattered glass (as breaking up glass in the studio wouldn't pass risk assessment).
I was intrigued at how it could look so beautiful and ugly at the same time. The molecular structure reminded me of lego, the way it all pieces together, epically those rare pieces of lego that where transparent gems. Richard Wilson sprung to mind with this sense of detsruction and this archetypal elements involving doors reminded me of Monika Sosnauska. I was particularly drawn to Bruce Naumen's 'Green light Corridor' and this way of creating a immersive experience that engages all the senses, giving me ideas of falling glass and how that could play with the audience.
ROOM (week 17)
Monday 7th January
Thinking in terms of site specific, I decided to bring the shattered glass inside, bringing the outside in. I initially had this idea to go a to a dump and find a cat door, however I felt to literal to me. Bring the sense of falling glass in the studio space would be challenging, especially without seeing glass. I tried cutting up some glass sheets id bought however they often splinter and crack in the wrong place so I found the alternative of mirrored paper- simple to use, easy to construction with and doesn't require a risk assessment. I constructed the mirror sheets into geometric triangles to create these intimidating shards.
Tuesday 8th January
The process of making all these different sized shards took a coulee afternoons, I wanted them to look spontaneous like shattered glass and therefore created random sized to achieve depth with the piece as a whole.
When all the triangles were assembled together to produced this spiky-looking quilt, the jagged edges and a sense of movement about them due to the seer mass I created. The mirrored paper achieved more interesting results than crystal clear mirror would have due to the distorted reflections it gives. If one was to grip the paper, it caused a bend with results in a bend of reflection and light- heightening the overall affect of a falling glass illusion.
To end with a seamless connection throughout each shard, I left the bottom of the pyramid open so I could attached the shapes from underneath so to joint wouldn't be seen from the top. From doing this, the structure now had a flexible element to it which allowed me to place it on any area in the room and the pyramids would mould to the surface.
Wednesday 9th January
The maquette I made have me an indication of what the overall affect could achieve. The shadows bouncing with light and how the texture o the mirrored surface creates these watery reflections almost like stained-glass. The layers of lights and shadow interference slightly with the viewer eye, almost like a kaleidoscope affect. I can imagine if I created enough of these to hang across the whole studio ceiling and the affect that would give and how intense the light interference would be, (like a ceiling a falling glass, an immersive experience).
Site- Specific:
I really liked this idea of working the sculpture into the site of the studio and almost digging it into the environment- almost mimicking the action of a criminal.
The idea of having these geometric mirrored shapes hanging suspended from the ceiling creates this sort of pause, a moment in time for thinking, a pause for a criminal to consider your actions and their consequences. The looming and immersing positions a criminal in the mess they leave behind- the confusion of the victim and the surreal way it leaves you feeling.
In a way, it links to vandalism the way my sculpture is invading the space to which it docent belong.
Friday 11th January
By creating this temporary cover for my cars window, it’s an act of against the criminal.
Just because crime and the act of vandalism is fleeting doesn't mean the affects are. The next week was a stressful one, constantly on edge, wondering if the person I walked pass in the street was the one would was responsible; it heightened paranoia and makes you very stand offish, however if you read all the stats of crime in your area you would never leave the house, but life goes on and so must we. The piece possesses a Kafkaesque quality similar to that found in Bruce Nauman, 'green light corridor'.
ROOM (week 18)
Monday 14th January
Creating these quick sketches help to quickly thing of ideas and get straight to creating them. After sketching I realised that my first sketch resembles Anish Kapoor Hex Mirror and allowed me to Segway into investigating space and time. Kapoor’s exploration of infinite space also reminds me of Yayoi Kusama's infinity mirrors. The way a sculpture/ in stallion can almost freeze time, provide that pause I mentioned earlier and make the viewer confusion from their up and down- lose a sense of gravity in a piece. Later combining this with kinetic energy would prove a challenge, however my last sketch proposes this mobile sculpture where the shards of mirrored 'glass' would hang suspended and as a result, the slightness movement or disruption in the air around it would create movement and make the reflections and shadows kinetic.
Tuesday 15th January
Back to this idea of entry point, the main tool involved in break ins, I was thinking of a way that would prove difficult for a criminal or play with the idea of space and tell and provide the criminal with a moment to reflect on what they are about to do before they do it.
By opening a door and being greeted by shards or glass blocking the way. Or having the shards of glass on the door handle to present obstacle. Or simply having a door opening to a full length mirror, forcing the criminal to take a good hard look in the mirror, forcing them to question their character, intent and ,morals.
The funny thing was that while I was playing around with my door and attaching the mirrored shards my mum walked it and the effect of the door being opened with these busy mirrored shards on the mad eye jump; the light bounced of it a violent way and the shadows loomed even more and the effect seriously took me aback.
Thursday 17th January
The making a progress of the mirror sculpture: slowly build upon the structure, seeing the piece grow. Depending on where you stand or what angle you are related the piece, affects how violent or intimidating it appears.
I purposefully left a few gaps so you could see the actual mirror on the other side come through as it added to the distortions. The choice of a domestic material like the mirror in my room made it personal to be, this idea of bring the outside in or revealing whats in the inside; as when my car was broken into, the problem didn't just remain in the street, it involved other neighbours being witnessed, police coming over, so the problem was brought into my home.
Saturday 8th January
I began thinking about the effects of day and night due to how different the sculpture looked in both. This mirrors the idea of crime being associated with night as everything looks different, not what they are in reality. Again this idea of reality, space and time come into play
I find this mirror piece to even be a reflection on art with viewer looking at it and it looking at you. What I particularly like about this piece is the numerous interpretations my peers come up with.
In a sense, the link to crime is personal to me as none of my peers saw the piece that way. I was absent fro the crit session due to a hospital appointment but I asked my peers the following week for their thoughts.
ROOM (week 19)
Monday 21st January
Ive had this really ambitious idea throughout thud project to create a larger scale sculpture, almost like a cubical where you enter with four mirrors on the walls, inspired by Yayoi Kusama infinity rooms. Due the price of creating this mirrored cubical I decide to make a model to propose the idea.
The effect would be to immersive but not overwhelm the viewer. Subtly playing with lighting but not with angles in the sense that the mirror wouldn't be shattered at all, a crystal clear mirror staring the viewer in the face no matter where they turn. The mirror creates a dialogue with themselves, reflect on their charcter and consider their position. Engaging in space with mirrors has proved interesting as everything we see is subjective to our eyes and that subjectiveness it hieghtened and maybe even confused by mirror.
Tuesday 22nd January
Wanting to incorporate the studio in my sculpture in a non- hypothetical way was my next goal. I utilised the light beam hanging above my working station, thinking the affect of such direct light could be interesting. With the flexible structure of the geometric shards, I could easily drape the shape over the over for the sake of documenting the experimentation; however, due to the safety of risk assessment, hanging thinkings directly on the lights must be avoided.
Thinking about removing the function of something, mirroring the how my car was functionless for a while. Almost repurposing something and seeing how people interact with it. Humans have been conditioned to be scared of change, particularly the older one gets, I wanted to investigate how my peers would respond to the piece below.
Wednesday 23rd January
After much research and interest regarding Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series, I found it to be an intriguing social angle regarding crime. The way Ned Kelly wore is home-made amour to protect him against the police shooting at him is reflected in how one tries to protect themselves from criminals.
Nowadays we try to predict something before it happens, almost prevent something from happening, e.e security alarms. This idea of stopping the inevitable or trying to escape fate as things happen for a reason, it's not always clear at the time.
This head piece includes audience participation and plays with the idea of positive and negative space. Something so beautiful thats representing something so ugly. Perhaps reflecting the mental health of a criminal. But the main ideas of being hidden and concealment.
I would have loved to create a full body suit out of this material and film the reaction of walking I the street, physical communicating how crime walks between us, this idea of noting seeing what inside people.