ARTWORK REFLECTION 3.
“Stargazing Red” Sculpture, Photography (See Spatial Sketch 2 post).
Spatial Sketch 2. As I broke up the bed, a thin golden brown fabric emerged, not exactly like thickly woven hessian, but a thinner, stiffer version of it. I was excited to use this product, because I wanted to create a full life-size sleeping human being or two giant (human-size and snake-like) Earthworms to connect to the bed product, and the Earthworm bodies I had witnessed. This was the perfect material.
Firstly, I drew two body patterns, (a front and back) then cut. On the sewing machine I began to sew my pattern pieces together, but I realised it was going to be too time consuming to make a full doll-like structure. I stopped sewing on the machine because the cotton was frustratingly weak and kept breaking. Sewing right around the figure, turning it inside out, and stuffing it was not going to be an easy task, unless I cut up the limbs to make joints. Therefore, I changed my mind to save time, thinking I could always turn it into a large doll, after I finish all my other process ideas with the steel, duvet, foam, stuffing and timber.
Therefore, I just played with the two patterns on the floor, changing the back pattern into a male figure to connect to the first cut-out of a female figure. I photographed both the positive figure and placed the material offcuts on the ground to create a negative space figure on the floor. Next, I lay the two figures on top of each other, parts on parts, and under and over, to try and give an illusion of 3-dimensionality. I then lay the two figures on the driveway in a different position to take photographs. The weather turned and started to rain, and the wind blew the figures, therefore by grabbing the nearest garden river stones to weight down the figures (in appropriate spots such as the brain and the genitals) I was able to finish photographing the soft sculptures.
I was pleasantly surprised as I played around with colour on my photographs, because I was accidently turning the images into flat shapes, with brightly coloured contrasts between figures and background, and with a grainy texture. Another contrast eventuated with the River stones popping out in different colours. It became quite Pop art inspired. My only regret is that I have not completed a full 3-dimensional figure, but I still quite like what I had achieved with flat fabric.
Artist Link: Next, I went online to search for an artist who does similar figure work, but could not find an artist with work like my figures above. The only linking artwork style that sprung to mind, was the work of New Zealand painter and printmaker Pat Hanly.
Artist: Pat Hanly (1932 -2004). I have always admired Pat Hanly’s artwork because he is a colourist, and so am I. Dark deep, moody tones of colour, and black do appeal, yet I am attracted to strong, contrasting colours too, these make me happy. Hanly is a brilliant, vibrant colourist, and his painting and printmaking skills are extraordinary. His figures are abstracted into spontaneous strange positions, bending and twisting, and full of joyful movement. As soon as I had completed my pop art looking figures above, I instantly thought of the strong red that Hanly uses, and his figures that look like cut-outs.
Fig 1. ‘Suburban Innocents.’ Pat Hanly. oil, enamel. 
Fig 2. ‘Golden Age‘. Pat Hanly. oil and enamel.
Fig 3. Pat Hanly. ‘Who am I, I am, Do it’ Screen print 565 x 635.
I also searched for an artist who makes soft sculpture, and found the artists below that have stimulating ideas.
Artist Link: Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). I found an artist who has extraordinary ideas and sculptural works from a large scale spider to soft sculptures of bodies.
Artist Link: Yayoi Kusama (b1929) is a very creative contemporary artist from Japan. Her sculpture and installation work is striking, such as her an armchair covered sculpture titled: ‘Accumulation No. 1’, 1962. Protruding and bulging from an armchair were stuffed shapes that she had sewed by hand and painted white. Kusama stated they were phalluses, which shocked the viewers in the 1960s… how could a chair be transformed into a sexualised object?
Bibliography:
Australian and New Zealand Art Sales Digest. Pat Hanly. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://www.aasd.com.au/index.cfm/list-all-works/concat=hanlyjames&direction=0&order=4&show=100.
MoMA. ‘Accumulation No. 1’. 1962. Yayoi Kusama. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/163826
Wikiart. ‘Seven in a Bed’. 2001. Louise Bourgeois. Accessed September 15, 2021.https://www.wikiart.org/en/louise-bourgeois/seven-in-bed-2001