Tag: sculpture

06
Nov
2020

Doll and House Task

categories: AAD010

Doll and House-

I wanted to create a doll that evoked my own personal interests and matched the time of year, with this in mind I created a witch doll out of tinfoil and clay. I made a mold of another doll that I had with tinfoil and then got to work with layering up clay to try and achieve a smooth doll like skin for the doll. The process was pretty easy and turned out well so I had some fun with painting the doll and dressing her in a doll wig and a dress form the doll I took the mold from. I think that these finishing touches on the doll is what makes it look quite impressive.

After making the doll I made her a witchy haunted house which I made from carboard and some acrylic paint. I used a sharp scalpel blade to cut out the window and door and also to make the house openable so the doll could fit into the house. I really like how this small project turned out and I had a lot of fun creating a small doll and her own house. I didn’t go in with much of a plan when painting the house but I really enjoy the black and white funhouse look to it and the green drips make the house look haunted and spooky which is what I was going for.

05
Nov
2020

Ralph’s sculpture Project

categories: AAD010

Sculpture Project-

My initial thoughts towards a public sculpture was something that most people could relate to. It would have to be something both captivating and relatable to a wide age range. I also had ideas for it to be interactive in a way. I wanted to create a highly reflective or mirrored hashtag, this being something that we perceive the world though now and even ourselves though, hence the mirrored surface allowing for a literal perspective though the lens of social media. Belfast is an extremely popular tourist destination so having a large hashtag could be something that would attract some social media attention and or remind people to share their visit to Belfast. My second idea or developed idea though the sculpture is to have white paneling on both sides as shown. This would allow for local business, schools and organisations to pay for their hashtag to be put onto the sculpture, not only would this be publicity for the smaller businesses in Belfast but it would also pay a lot of money towards the sculpture.

I drew up the sculpture in a drawing program and added it into the location I think it would look best in. Not only would this give you a reflected view into central library it would also be an interactive sculpt in a busy part of town (therefore it would get a lot of traffic and notice). I think that this idea would captivate people due to its relatable and simple message but it would also pay for its own commission while helping the businesses and local organisations. I thought that the sculpture would be best made from a reflective metal that would be weather proof to prevent rusting or damage. The hashtag would stand at 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide making it a standout sculpture without it taking up an overwhelming amount of space. These dimensions would also allow for it to be safely interactive.

My Own Paper Model-

I made a series of identical paper nets and connected them with hot glue to create a replica of my design. it stands at 10 inches by 10 inches and is very simplistic but it definitely gives a good idea of what this drawing could look like in a 3d form.

Artist research

Sir Anish Kapoor-

Kapoor is one of the most influential sculptors of his generation, due to the diverse range of approaches he used to develop interactive and engineered public art. His works differ vastly in terms of scale, Cloud gate being an example of one of his larger pieces, this contrasts with some of the other mirrored art he places which is merely a fraction of the size. His approach often differs from piece to piece, warping the metal to a free engineered shape or keeping the piece very plain with shapes such as circles. He is known widely for his art that blends in with its environment despite it being in such different areas such as forests and in the middle of cities. The use of concave and convex mirrors allows for the illusion of his work to shine even if the areas for such work vastly differ. His work provokes a sense of confinement and isolation within ones self while also opening up a space to a lot more than would have been seen originally. His work is something that we have all seen and I really admire the use of mirrors and making art that seems to vanish in such a large space. For a sculpture project I think the idea of using mirrored surfaces is a great idea as it challenges an interaction with the viewer.

Michelangelo Pistoletto-

Pistoletto’s stainless steel pieces are particularly captivating to me. He tries to convey both his own opinion about life and perceptions along with ideas of theories. His works combined both installations and an interactive art form. His work mainly deals with the subject matter of reflection and the unification of art and everyday life. I find that the combination of paint and illusion along with the perceivable truth of a mirror to be a fascinating subject matter and therefore I find his art to be particularly captivating. He describes the viewer and mirror together as nothing more than a person in a preexisting space yet when images and paintings are added to the reflective surfaces a different environment is created all together and the person becomes a part of that art space and even part of the piece itself. I think that this interactive quality between the viewer and art is something that I think many of my favorite sculptures possess.

Candy Chang-

Chang envisions the future of ritual in public spaces when creating her work, some of her most notable being the before I die piece which shows an interactive chalk board, a sculpt that involves the public directly. Her projects examine the dynamics between society and the psyche, the threshold between isolation and community, and the role of public space in an alienating age. Her works have been replicated and recreated in many different countries, due to the impact that they have with grappling mortality and a sense of forever together into a collective piece. Her work has been noted as some of the best interactive public art in the world. I really love her ideas of a sense of foreverness or a standing that lasts longer than that of mortality. I think that having a sculpture this interactive is almost creating a safe and sacred space within public art which in of itself is largely challenging public art as a whole.

22
Oct
2020

Ceramics- (Research and Building)

categories: AAD010

Brendan Tang- Post-Modern Ceramic Artist

Tang’s non-functional vessel forms are mostly inspired by other contemporary and post modern ceramics, he enjoys the paradox between classical and modern blue and white ceramic wear and that of mecha-forms often utilised in modern cartoon and movies. His bright and colourful colour palette combats that of the modernism of the blue and white designs. The artist enjoys adding wiring, cogs and other mechanical parts that would suggest a functionality despite its non-functioning state, he states that this is probably more amusing to those interested in his field of ceramics that put art before that of practicality.

Tang states that he draws “inspiration from such diverse realms as contemporary pop culture (e.g., plastic toys and Japanese comics), art history (e.g., in the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels and 18th century French rococo), and historical and contemporary practices in self-portraiture.” These influences are prominent throughout his work and in many ways it is what attracts me to his works. I enjoy his outlook of art over functionality and the great opposition and rejection to works deemed traditional or modernism.

Curran Wedner- Contemporary Ceramic Artist

Wedner’s works are heavily focused on fetal and baby-like anatomical structures, he combines this with “bog” like influences which creates an unsettling paradox between the soft innocence of childlike faces and black ooze protruding from pottery. He works primarily in clay as “clay has always been a friendly medium to me since I have worked with it my whole life”. The process begins with throwing and trimming on a wheel, he then makes castings and applies them to the leather-hard clay before bisque firing the work. Each sculpture is then glazed and fired a second time. “From start to finish this process takes weeks,” he makes each piece individual and creates a new disturbing combination of opposing anatomical structures for each pot.

Wedner enjoys the cycle of life being the main storyteller and or theme of his works, however he draws much influence from the notorious bog bodies in Europe and Bell-Becker culture. I am really drawn to the disturbing qualities of his work, I have seen few artists influenced by the bog bodies which is something that I have done much research on and in turn became quite fascinated by the haunting stories. His works compelling paradox between youthful beauty and the horrifying aspects of the black oozing glazes and witch-like fingers he often includes is diverse and stands out from that of the other ceramic artists that I have looked at.

My Own Clay Building-

I made a simple design from the sketches of one of the assembly buildings in Belfast. I wrapped the air drying clay around the drawing for each side and made a simplistic infill focusing on the basic shapes rather than any specific details. Once the clay began to harden I molded them to the curved shape that I desired and made sure they fit together. I added a small amount of hot glue to the edges for some structural integrity as I am unfamiliar with the clay that I was using. This way I was able to confidently keep the structure together long enough for it to dry completely. Working with the clay was difficult for me as it is a media that I have never favored but I tried to not let it consume too much time or effort and just let the clay harden in the simplistic shape that i was hoping for. The clay hardened quite well although i think id need to make sure that it doesn’t dry out too fast for the next time as I think that this was the cause of the small cracks on the surface of the clay.

12
Oct
2020

Product- Artist research/ paper sculpts and lighting

categories: AAD010

Marie-Anne Thieffry- Cardboard Anatomy

Marie-Anne Thieffry repurposes cardboard boxed and other biproducts of mass consumerism in an attempt to rework waste into a beautiful recycled sculpt, she allows for cardboard to become the integral and primary focus of her luminating work. By repurposing and reworking the packaging, she evolves what was a simple container and reworks it into a new perspective and puts life back into the packaging. She Creates the ultimate paradox between the fluidity and soft angles of the female anatomy with the rigid and indifferent feeling evoked from conventional cardboard packaging. By incorporating the natural holes and shapes made with the cardboard she is complimenting the naturality of the form and also creating a sensual and clear representation of femininity.

Thieffry is concerned with environmental issues and her choice to use corrugated cardboard as the main foundation for her work has allowed her to repurpose the card into a new life cycle. She believes that repurposing these recycled products is what she can do to help the environment as an artist. I think that the use of the cardboard in her work mimics lace or floral patters often associated with feminine sexuality, this heavily contrasts the harsh and often boring appearance of brown rigid card.

I took her ideas and influences for her art and into account when making a piece of art inspired by the work that she produces. I used recycled card and soaked it in a glue and water mixture to try and make the card as malleable as possible. I applied tin strips of this to a mold I made from tinfoil and cling film in the shape of my bust. I carefully used my own anatomy to make the mold as I thought that it would make the piece for personal and have a sense of self. I added a small amount of pigment to the glue mixture to remove the stark white of the paper and create a much more visually interesting piece.

Nahoko Kojima- Large Scale Paper Sculptures

Kojima is heavily inspired by her perception of nature and her childhood curiosities of shadows and the way animals moved and flowers grew. Her large scale works allow for a realistic cast of shadow when light is applied which is assisted by the strategic cutouts applied to the paper that she uses. Her work develops while in the process of completion and she is never sure what the turnout will be from the designing process to the completed piece of art. She uses a range of cutting and folding techniques to create her work and tries to recreate the shapes of the animals that she is trying to create. She states that her work focuses on a new perspective of nature and the beauty of her adventures of a new culture when she moved from Tokyo to London and discovered not only a new viewing of nature but the beauties of a new culture.

I love how dynamic her work is and the fluidity of the shapes which creates a sense of sheer naturality and preservation of natural forms. The thought behind the shadows and harsh light makes the pieces she creates stand apart from that of other sculptures, the fact that she also used paper in all of her sculptures on such a large scale makes her works special. I think seeing this work in a gallery would be utterly breathtaking and completely moving due to the encapsulation of her perspective of nature.

Masayo Fukuda- Kirie Paper Art

Fukuda is a master of the traditional art of Kirie or Japanese paper cutting. She works on single sheets of A2 paper to create large intricate works of marine life, depicting movement and shadow. She enthralls her viewers with the illusion that her work has many layers of paper or is drawn with a ballpoint pen but in fact she hand cuts all her pieces and gives them as much realistic detailing as possible. She uses the negative space to create most of her detail and shadows. Her highlight piece was the delicate lace like octopus that she created in 2018 which features a mass amount of small details in a single sheet of A2 paper. At first glance her work may appear to be made from intricate lace or doilies which gives her work a unique and passion filled appearance.

I really admire how much time and effort she puts into her works as i have tried working with a blade and paper and getting the details small an sharp is difficult and takes a lot longer than that of drawing fine details with a pen. The micro-detail aspect of her work is what gives it its visually dynamic and alluring appearance that I was ultimately drawn to.

My Own Paper crafts-

Keeping the artists in mind I created a few dynamic paper pieces myself. I started off simply to see what ways I was able to bend the paper and bring it together. This gradually led to a much larger sculpture being about a meter in length. I really liked this piece, as simple as it was to make I think that its very interesting to look at. The piece reminds me of Japanese umbrellas and brings me a lot of interest and happiness to look at, despite it being as simple as folded paper held together with tape. I displayed the process of making this piece with the start to end process of folding.

I saw the work of Marie-Anne Thieffry and decided to make my own bust from sodden paper, water and glue. I made a mold of my own torso with some tinfoil and was able to create an accurate female anatomy piece from this process of layering paper strips over the foil. I have a huge love for drawing anatomical structures and the artist’s work inspired me so much that I wanted to make something similar to her paper sculptures. I think that the process I used for this turned out really well and is my favorite paper sculpture I have made to date. I decided to keep the paper plain as I thought that painting it might take away from the paper look that I wanted to show.

Paper Lighting Project-

This is my paper sculpture with some coloured lighting on it. I think that by playing around with the lighting that the sculpt was exposed to it changed to appearance and mood of the piece.

For the paper lighting project I wanted to make a shade that would wrap around a lightbulb and encapsulate the light within the small space. I made a paper structure to hold the shredded sugar paper and used some clear tape with large spaces to make some breaks in the paper for the light to shine though. I think that this was very effective and the light cover fir the bulb perfectly. I really like the layers of different coloured paper, it reminds me of a piñata or some other sort of festive décor.

06
Oct
2020

Alt. Means (sculpture 3 houses)

categories: AAD009

The first house I built was made of paper and tape. I took inspiration from my art studio which looks like a log cabin, not only was rolling the paper for the logs fast but it also had quite a good look. Assembling it was also quite easy as I just made a square and continued to layer it. The design is very self explanatory and the house was constructed in about 15 minutes.

The second house is a natural materials tree house. I used sticks, cardboard, fabric and dried artichoke for it. this house was a little fiddly to start with as getting the wire structure to sit while putting the material over it was quite challenging. I used a hot glue gun for structural integrity. I tried to make a thatched roof appearance with the artichoke and this worked really well. I think that this was a simple design that would hold well and it looks unique.

The cardboard house took a long time for me to make as I made each wall separately and cut out all if the windows and doors with a scalpel. I assembled the house before I painted it as you can see. my main idea for the house was for it took look very Tim Burton esc or look like a house would be imagined in Salem. once the house was painted and the railings were added to it I was super happy with how it turned out. I think it looks exactly how I imagined it. For the picture I put some fairy lights into the house through the door which gives it a more livable feel.

06
Oct
2020

Alt. Means (one line portraits and wire sculptures)

categories: AAD009

On receiving the task of drawing 10 faces without looking at our paper I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. I found it very interesting that our brain would open up to new and unused parts when doing this. It challenges your ability to know where your pen is, where the last line you drew was and where it needs to be next. As someone who really enjoys portraiture I think that these one line drawings will give me a new perspective of how a face doesn’t need to have an exact likeness to look like a person or evoke emotion. As I went on I found that I could do one face in pen between 10 and 30 seconds, and my confidence with placement got gradually better too. I began to understand where my pen was and where it needed to go next. I really like the look of the overlapped drawings, I think that the different flesh toned markers made it unique and stand out from one another.

I did 3 wire faces with the drawings that I had completed. Two of these faces are 2 dimensional and one is 3 dimensional. The first one that you can see focuses on the morphing of two faces and I think that this was quite a nice approach, I found that taping the wire to the paper as I was going allowed me to get a flat sculpture of the drawing that I had done. The sculp on the far right is my least favourite, it is the 3d sculp and it focuses on one face being slightly offset from the one in front, they are connected at the chin and slowly spread out towards the top, making them look like they are being peeled apart. The middle sculpt was my first and favourite, I really like how simple it is and the inclusion of the mask really helps to simplify the face further. I enjoyed doing these small sculptures and they took 3-5 minutes each.