My experiment from last week dried over the weekend, and now I have left it to soak in order to dissolve the clay inside it. The results aren’t as clean as I hoped they would be, but I suppose that is how the first attempt usually goes. The wave-like texture in the clay was not intentional, but I find myself drawn to the soft shadows created by the troughs and bows of the plaster.
This piece has been slowly developing over the last few weeks, and I feel I have little control over it’s growth. I am constantly collecting boxes to expand the cardboard map extending itself on the wall, with the piece taking on an almost viral feeling. I plan on eventually overlapping different boxes as they are all currently separate, but I believe this piece will only be “finished” when I move on to the next brief. Watching this piece grow through my own eyes and the photos I take of it are exciting, I almost feel like some sort of crazed scientist creating something I don’t yet understand the implications of. The shadows cast by the cardboard interest me, and I would love to get in some spotlights to emphasise this effect. The colors of the cardboard also reflect on to the wall, leading me to wonder what this piece would look like reversed or made with colored card.
Artist Research
Working with light has seemed to be the direction my works are heading in, and the works of both James Turell with Green Mountain Falls Skyspace and Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project have caught my eye. The lighting is not in any complex shape, rather gives a natural color and creates a beautiful atmosphere. Bring the light of the sun in, in Eliasson’s case, creates a surreally gorgeous piece that I cannot for the life of me get off my mind. Turell’s Skyspaces are simple in hue, but effective in execution. I hope that with the natural colors of my work so far that I can create the desired effect with lighting such as these pieces.