Sculpture Artist- Research.
Within this research I tried to focus on elements of the artwork that I could reference when creating my sculpture- for example the use of tiles in John kindnesses ceramic work. I carried out some of this research after I had created my sculpture so that it is relevant and I could reference techniques that other artists had used.
John Kindness.
John Kindness is a Belfast born sculptor who has come to be extremely well known for “The Big Fish” situated within Belfast itself. He attended the Belfast College of Art and now lives and works in London.
Kindness’ use of tiles and ceramics with different images on them extremely intrigued me- especially after I had decided too include the use of tiles in my own sculpture piece (shown later in this post). Although there isn’t much information on Kindness I still wanted to include him as his work is extremely inspiring- and well known within the Belfast community.
“The Big Fish”
“The Big Fish” Up close.
The sculpture shown above was constructed by Kindness in 1999. It resides on the Donegal Quay in Belfast near the Lagan Lookout. This piece is extremely big- coming in at 33ft long. Kindness created this piece using printed tiles that each depict a piece of Belfast’s history. Some tiles are quite humorous- such as the one showing a plate of fish and chips where as some are more serious- telling the stories of soldiers and those in the troubles.
The reason Kindness chose a salmon as his subject is supposedly because it is supposed to be “The Salmon Of Knowledge2 from Irish mythology. I feel this is extremely clever and innovative as the salmon created tells a story with each tile- spreading knowledge to its visitors.
I am extremely intrigued by kindness’ use of color palette and composition. Unfortunately there isn’t much on how he actually composes his pieces.
Above is another example of a ceramic piece from Kindness where he uses tiles to construct a sculpture.
Stonehenge.
I decided to look into Stonehenge after researching alternative materials I could use within my sculpture. I also felt it was relevant as I have used a circular structure for my piece- similar to the composition of the stones.
I was interested at also looking at scale of these pieces- as that is part of what makes them so impressive to onlookers.
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, It consists of stones (around 13ft high) set within the earth to create a circular structure which was later to be known as a burial ground.
It is believed that Stonehenge was constructed from 3000BC to 2000BC- this was found through a process known as radiocarbon dating.
Stonehenge is legally protected since 1882 as it is regarded as a British cultural icon. The site and its surroundings were added to the list of world heritage sites in 1986 where it is owned by The Crown and manages by English Heritage. The land surrounding the site is owned and cared for by the National Trust.
Anish Kapoor.
Anish Kapoor , born in 1954, is a British Indian sculptor who specilises in mainly conceptual art. Kapoor has lived – and worked- in London from the early 1970’s. He first moved here from Mumbai in order to study art at Hornsey College of Art and then the Chelsea School Of Art and Design.
“Cloud Gate”
Above is Kapoor’s most famous piece of work known most commonly as “The Bean”. Kapoor is known for using reflective materials to create sculptures and installations that play with perspective on a large scale. Kapoors work is mostly about perpective. He talksabout blurring the lines of identy and only a three dimentional world. He predicts there is more to life than what we can see and through his art he tries to provoke thoughts of this.
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“Turning the world upside down”.
This piece once again plays with reflection and perspective. “Turning the world upside down” is a reflective hourglass shape placed in Jerusalem. Kapoor states that it “reflects and reverses the Jerusalem sky and the landscape, a reference to the city’s duality of celestial and earthly, holy and profane”.
Overall I feel that what is most interesting about Kapoor’s work is the interpretation. There are so many various meanings a consumer could take from the reflections, change in perspectives, scale and odd shapes of Kapoor’s sculptures. I like to think that Kapoor’s work is mostly enveloped in the idea that there are other plains of existence- whether that may be an afterlife, parallel universes or whatever else you might believe. The diversity in the meanings is actually what can unite all of us in viewing his work.
Rebecca Horn.
When looking at different sculpture artists Rebecca Horn caught my eye. I enjoyed how she integrated real people into her sculptures and how they were sculptures but also performance pieces. I felt this was something new that I hadn’t seen before- or at least not like this!
Horn is a German artist born in 1944- as the second world war was ending. Horn states: “We could not speak German. Germans were hated. We had to learn French and English. We were always traveling somewhere else, speaking something else. But I had a Romanian governess who taught me how to draw. I did not have to draw in German or French or English. I could just draw.” I felt this is explains the connection of art across all countries and all languages. There is something quite beautiful in the way that Horn sees art as another language.
Horn spent most of her life in boarding schools and at the age of 19 decided to study art- against her parents will as they wanted her to study economics. Horn attended the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts until she suddenly became ill with lung poisoning. This was due to Horn working with glass fiber without a mask. Horn then had to recover in a sanatorium. The same year her parents died and she felt as if she was completely isolated. This developed into Horn working with softer materials which conveyed emotions of her grief from losing her parents and her pain of isolation through her illness.
Today Horn lives and works in Berlin.
I am completely in awe of the creativity shown throughout Horn’s work. I can only imagine the impact that actually seeing these pieces up close would have. The performance of each is what makes them so incredible and shocking yet beautiful.
Mind Map Of Ideas.
To outline some of my first ideas I created a mind map. This helps to try and decide on materials, size and composition of work.
Quick Sketches.
I then moved on to some quick sketches of how my sculpture would be composed. I chose to create a sculpture that forms a circle with an opening in one side that viewers could enter through.
Above is the exterior of my sculpture. It is supposed to show many people walking to their jobs and workplaces. I felt these people in the sculpture could be taken from real people that walk trough the area between the park and the university where the sculpture would be situated.
On the interior on the circle I have chosen to sculpt children skipping/playing/holding hands. I have taken this composition inspiration from the nursery rhyme “A pocket full of posies” where the children would skip in a circle. Behind the children I have hoped to sculpt in some trees with their aspirations on the leaves such as “I want to be an astronaut”. I felt these could have been written by real children that attended the park or in the area to give a community feel.
Simple model to see how the structure could be composed…
Above I have composed a simple cardboard structure to see how the sculpture would stand. I will refine this in clay at a later stage.
After speaking to Ralf Sanders I wanted to explore different materials to see what would work best within my final composition.
Initially I had hoped to create my sculpture by casting bronze- however, as I continued to look into the use of bronze I started to understand how the erosion- which I felt would actually work well for the overall feel of the piece- would have an effect on the tiles inside as the epoxy adhesive would ware away over time and cause an essential part of the sculpture to fall apart.
After realizing this I knew it would be best to change my outer material – as the tiles were an essential element to incorporate the people in the community into the work.
After doing some more research on materials I came to the conclusion that stone would also work with my final idea. I felt that the greyness outside would highly contrast the interior which will be highly influenced by the children in the community- likely being colorful and bold. This is what I want as my main feature- the strong juxtaposition of the happy, colorful children with bright ideas and dreams contrasting with the outer shell of grey adults and dull students rushing in a crowd.
Final Sketch.
Below my final sketch.
“Dreams To Dust- the story of growing up”
Above my final piece will be 10ft tall and 3ft wide to allow for people to truly be immersed in the colors and feelings brought forth in the final sculpture. I want people to feel almost underwhelmed looking at the piece from the outside- this is why i have chosen simple figures to resemble the adults etc. Then, I hope they are hit with the waves of color- the creativity of the children, the boldness, their dreams and aspirations- to really give the piece an impact and a warmth.
The tiles will line the interior of the sculpture as well as several on the ground leading out of the sculpture to draw the audience inward. I hope to make the entrance in the shape of a large person so that the overall piece looks cohesive and there is not a blunt cut off point to the circular structure.
Clay Sculpture.
I also created a clay sculpture which I photographed in the area which the sculpture would be situated. I feel that the interior colors would work well with the bright play park setting. I also feel that although the outside will appear dull it will not look out of place as the University building is a grey color with lots of muted colors- therefore overall the color palette should work with its surroundings.
Above is the construction of a small model of my piece. In hindsight I should have made it much taller and smaller in the middle to accurately depict the scale of the structure I had wished to create. However, this was still enough for me to place my piece in the setting to try and get an idea of how it would look if created.
Overall I am pleased with the final outcome of this piece. If I were to add anything to this model I should have added some more color to accurately depict the impact of the piece. However, I am extremely happy with the overall outcome.