Author: Chloe

Site Intervention

I have decided to present my final work in a photoshopped image to further communicate the entirety of my idea for this site intervention.

One of the biggest points made when site interventions were introduced to the assignment, was the specific relation that our assemblages have with the site. I feel as though I have channeled this point through my consideration of Cornwall Park, and the reason of which it was founded. My assemblages focus on helping the insects in Cornwall Park. Cornwall Park was made specifically for people to enjoy nature, and it is so important that we have insects in order to have nature.

I have previously explored how scale can impact the interaction a viewer has with a sculpture, and the impact that size can have on viewing of the work. I find it interesting how scale in sculptural form is often compared with the size of the viewers looking at the work. My final presentation explores scale in a way that takes into account the scale of an individual object, and the scale of an accumulation of objects. Through my exploration, I found that scale heavily impacts the noticeability of artwork in response to people, and how it can be used to attract and also deny attention. I decided to make my final site intervention an accumulation of multiple assemblages to attract people as well as insects, this is a scale in accumulation, not size. My assemblages were commonly missed by the Cornwall Park population due to their size. Because I could not change the scale in real life, I needed to consider how I could utilize scale in a different way to elevate the site intervention. The larger-sized accumulation or more than only four assemblages allows for the site intervention to become more noticeable in the digital space. I believe that if the site intervention were to be found in Cornwall Park, it would in fact be noticeable.

Colour had a huge impact on the attraction of insects and people. Personally, I found it a lot easier to spot the brighter assemblages I made e.g. my orange butterfly assemblage. Colour has a huge impact on the attraction of beings – humans and insects alike. For my final presentation, I have utilized colour to attract insects, as insects are attracted to colour due to the resemblance bright colours have with flowers. In doing this, I have also made the site intervention itself easier to spot by people walking past.

I have found it interesting how working with a combined use of digital and ‘real life’ materials has impacted my work. The question of what is considered as ‘real’ or not is a very philosophical one that has been focused on in this brief. In the circumstance of my final presentation, I have made assemblages in real life which have then been manipulated through photoshop with their size and placement. The assemblages themselves can be found in real life, but they have since been transported into a digital matter. The digital matter does not deny their existence, but it does not necessarily mean that my assemblages and my site intervention are real, as they are not actually there. My site can be found in real life, but the intervention itself is not on the actual site, but if digital spaces are sites themselves, then I have.

This image also shows the spaces of which the viewers could stand or sit to view the site intervention. There is a seat in the background which in real life could allow for the viewers to sit and look at my assemblages, as well as watch the insects interact with them. There is also a sectioned walkway that surrounds the entire garden, allowing the viewers to walk around and view the site intervention from multiple angles. I like how the growing plants impose on the pathway for the viewers, it breaks the boundaries of the site and allows for the viewers to have closer contact with the assemblages. One of my orange assemblages is placed beyond the walkway boundary, which then allows the viewers to touch, smell, and even taste the assemblage as it does not have a defined boundary.

I have enjoyed this brief a lot and it has brought me to further question the literal impacts that material choice, scale, color, viewer interaction, and exhibiting sites can have on an artwork. This brief has come to make me realize an analogy that can be used in multiple different artmaking forms. Artmaking is quite like dressing up, you can create a good outfit with only a shirt, pants, and shoes, but what can make an outfit truly work, is the accessories that you incorporate into the outfit to elevate it from just an outfit to an accumulation of multiple elements which work together to beautifully adorn a person. In terms of art, the artwork is the outfit template, but through considering the viewer-artwork relationship, material use, colour incorporation, scale, and exhibiting space, it elevates the artwork from just an artwork to a piece of art which impacts the viewers, the space, and the integrity of the work.

Verisimilitude

Today I went for my last checkup on my site intervention! It was really sunny today which was awesome because there were lots of bees flying around! I didn’t get to see any butterflies today which was disappointing, BUT I found a bee on my orange butterfly!! It wasn’t there for very long but I did manage to snap a photo of it before it flew away! There were other insects on the orange as well, not the ones I intended, however, it was still serving its purpose! The orange has definitely been the most successful fruit and metal assemblage so far 🙂

One of the most notable things about this site is the amount of bees there are! It was quite nice seeing bumblebees and honey bees because you don’t see them very much in winter and they are very important to the environment! I didn’t see any butterflies responding to my assemblages – it doesn’t mean there weren’t any though! – but I think that the bees are still important enough for this experimentation to be deemed successful!

My banana, pear, and apple assemblages did not work out so well :(. I believe that the pear and the apple assemblages were both not bright enough or sweet enough to attract many insects. Because they dry a lot as well, I think that it would be too difficult for the insects to eat with their mouths, which are properly called a proboscis. The banana assemblage quickly became rotted and brown – not very pretty – and didn’t seem to attract any insects 🙁

In terms of the site intervention, I believe that my assemblages would have more of an impact if there were more! I noticed a few people looking at my assemblages when I was there and I believe it was curiosity as to what I was doing staring so intently at the garden. I think that if I were to create more assemblages with an orange they would become a lot more noticeable and visually impactful!

I think that with more of these assemblages, especially the orange ones because it was the most successful probably due to the colour, this idea would work quite well! And so for my final presentation I have decided to photoshop my site to be full of my assemblages! I think that they would have a lovely addition to the environment both visually and functionally!

Verisimilitude

Today I visited my site intervention! I had been quite worried about them today because it was raining a lot and I was worried that something would happen to them :(. Due to the heavy rain, my visit had to be quite brief because I was getting drenched. But whilst I was there it was exciting!

When I visited my sculptures I saw that there were insects eating my sculptures!! They weren’t the insects I intended for them to be, bees and butterflies, etc, because they can’t fly in the rain, BUT, it was exciting! I was very happy to see that my assemblages were being of use. I noticed that there were a fair few more interested in my banana and orange assemblages, I think this is because the fruits are softer. Tomorrow I think I may visit my assemblages again with bananas and oranges and replace the apple and pears with them 🙂 that way I can have a bigger response from the insects. Tomorrow I will do my final checkup! The weather app says that it will be sunny so hopefully ill get to see some bees and butterflies!

Tomorrow is the final day I can check my work before hand-in on Tuesday, and so I will be making finalized decisions for my presentation! These decisions are based on whether I should depict more or less of each fruit. I have decided to incorporate photoshop into my work because it brings another reference to my previous artworks and it is also an interesting conversation between what is real and what is not.

Verisimilitude – Saturday

This afternoon I headed to Cornwall Park to place my assemblages. My first intention was to place them in different areas around the park. I am still interested in this idea but I wanted to place my assemblages all together for two reasons. If someone were to find one of my lone assemblages, it would be easier to assume that they could take or remove it from the site. Ultimate thinking, there is safety in numbers. My second reason was that I wanted them to be more visually impactful. Due to their small scale, they are not very noticeable. The exciting thing about my assemblages is the enticing moment where the viewer discovers one assemblage, and then two, and then three, and then four! It’s an interesting game of wheres wally.

I decided to place them in this cute little garden area because it was surrounded by little bees and some butterflies as well! there is also a huge arch next to it that is currently blooming heaps of flowers which would attract insects into the area. I did not place my asse,blages there because it is quite a popular spot for photos and picnics and I did not want them damaged. I thought that the boundary of my chosen site is a good indication of the space, and because of the shrubbery, it is a sectioned-off area so my assemblages won’t be removed from it.

When I placed my assemblages, I tried to make it so they blended in a bit with its environment, following from the nature of an insect, but still exposed enough to be noticeable if someone were to look at the site. I didn’t take a photo from the perspective where you could better spot them, so next time I will hopefully remember to do that :).

I also took a video of people walking past the site! No one managed to notice the sculpture amongst the site but I am honestly kind of happy about it because I really don’t want them taken. I am interested in what would happen if I were to make heaps more, and whether due to the size, people would notice or not regardless of quantity. This is an introduction of thinking about scale in a different way.

*if anyone could give me instructions on how to include a video, that would be great! When I attempt to upload it, there is only the audio and no imagery*

“Scale refers to the overall physical size of an artwork or objects in the artwork. We always relate scale to the size of the human body – how big or small the piece is in relation to us. An artist may decide to use a scale which is different from life-sized and this will have an impact on how it feels.” Definition of Scale on Google.

For this assemblage specifically, I have found it interesting how size can have a huge impact on an artwork, and how and in this case, whether it is seen or not. In this video, I found it interesting how no one noticed the assemblages. However, I do understand that it is not surprising seeing as they are relatively hidden and are not in a large quantity. I quite enjoy that people can not see them unless they look because it is primarily for insects, and I like how it would be a discovery of sorts to find the assemblages. I would like to explore how to make people notice them though without changing the actual size of them.

From this, I have been thinking about flowers and how in large quantities, they attract more insects. Maybe in large quantities, people would also be able to see my assemblages? And so in response to this, I am intending to make more assemblages in hopes that the large quantity will attract more insects as well as people especially when placed together. However, I am worried about the number of resources I have because I do not have very much wire left and I have very little time to buy and then make multiple assemblages. So maybe to explore this idea I could use photoshop?

Another idea could be to replace some of my fruits on my assemblages with oranges! It is quite well known that insects are attracted to colour, as flowers are colourful, and so maybe to attract more insects I could focus on the more colourful fruits like oranges!

Based off of the response the insects have to my current assemblages, particularly my orange one, I will decide whether or not to photoshop more into my photos.

So many things to think about!

Verisimilitude

Upon response to my previous blog, and continuing my plan, I have since made three more butterfly assemblages to place in Cornwall Park. I am very excited to place them in Cornwall Park and to see whether they work out as I hope – become a source of food for insects. I have four different assemblages, each with fruit that butterflies enjoy eating so that my material use connects more with the depicted subject matter, and in the hopes that butterflies eat them!

As you can see in these photos, there is a change in the butterfly frame from the apple butterfly frame compared to the rest of them, and I have also placed tooth picks in some of them. In my decision to leave my assemblages outside and to use them multiple times, I also realised that my frame would need to be more durable and sturdy. I have recently been teaching myself how to make jewelry using a wire wrapping technique and I thought that this technique would be perfect to use as it reinforces the metal shapes through wrapping them with a smaller wire. I added the toothpicks to my assemblages because some of the fruits such as the pears, oranges, and the apples (now that they are dried) were not stable enough for transportation to Cornwall Park, and because they were going to remain there for a few days, I knew that they would need more structural support.

I made my banana assemblage last night, as I wanted to have two assemblages that were rotted, and two that were not, entering the experimentation period of my assemblages.

Next up, placing them in Cornwall Park!

Verisimilitude

Yesterday (thursday) I attended my Virtual group critique call. I enjoyed this call because there were a lot of us contributing to the conversation and it was very helpful for continuing my idea, and everyone else’s ideas!. I failed to mention in my previous blog that I chose to work with a butterfly specifically because in Cornwall Park, I am seeing a frequent number of butterflies, bees and other insects flying around due to the multitude of flowers blooming in the park. I thought that it would be a lovely connection to Cornwall park.

After telling my group this inspiration, they gave me so many suggestions I could go with! What most interested me is the possibilities my sculpture has in terms of the environment, and more specifically, the insects in Cornwall park. My choice of fruit to use for my sculpture is interesting because fruit is a direct result of cross-pollination that insects themselves perform. Not only this, but insects also eat fruit as well! Through research of what butterflies eat, I found that alongside pollin, they also eat fruit both rotted and fresh. In my research I found that butterflies particularly enjoy bananas, apples(!), pears, and oranges.

With this in mind, I am going to attempt to make multiple different butterflies and place them around Cornwall park, particularly in places with lots of flowers! I have also decided to keep the original apple butterfly I made so that it rots a bit before I use it to make another site intervention! In my flat, I currently have bananas and apples, so I am going to use them! I am going to buy an orange and a pear so that I can have sculptures which are both rotted and fresh!

I intend to leave my sculptures out for the remainder of this brief to see if any insects eat them! If its a hit, it would be interesting to find the metal frame alone. I think that this idea fits well with the brief I wrote for myself because I needed to have consideration of my sculpture in the impact it has with the environment. I am interested in introducing a cycle of sorts where my sculptures are both visually lovely in colour and shape, while also useful in helping the insects of the environment which my sculptures are placed!

Cornwall Park was originally a private farm, and upon the death of the owner Sir John Logan Campbell, who gifted the farm to the people of New Zealand. This was so that there was a place in the heart of Auckland City where people could enjoy and experience nature. The life of nature is hugely impacted by insects in nature. Insects perform some of the most important acts, such as cross pollination, which allow nature to thrive. Through the introduction of these sculptures, I hope to make works of art which help to continue the value of nature in Cornwall Park, and in turn, the continuation of nature which relies heavily on insects. My assemblages will offer food for insects to eat, like a bird feeder. The use of metal will allow for my butterfly frames to remain intact and therefor, reusable, and my use of fruit will allow for a decomposable material which can be removed from the frame and then replaced for a continuation.

My research over the next few days will be to visit my assemblages and to assess whether they are being used for their intent, and to make revised decisions on whether they need to be placed in different areas which are more concentrated with insects, and to also see what fruits attract more insects. I am interested to see whether people notice these assemblages, and whether they are moved by people.

For the start of my brief this week before hand-in, I decided to work more with scale in Cornwall park and also wanted to experiment with the environment itself, to see how I could utilize the space to assist my assemblages.

I have been thinking about the idea of what is real, in terms of ‘real life’ sculpture and also digital sculpture. It is interesting because essentially, the objects you are making digitally are real because they have been made. The nature of which it was made is technically irrelevant, just because a movie isn’t ‘real life’ doesn’t mean it is not real. It is an interesting concept. In consideration of this, and my want to incorporate scale – particularly large scale – into my sculptures. My abilities in ‘real life’ scale are small, I can not create a huge assemblage that is bigger than a tree. But through my use of photoshop, I have the ability to create an assemblage that is large in scale. I can edit my sculptures to be huge against the normal-sized person. This is exactly what I did for my site interventions!

While I was researching scale specifically to do with sculpture, I found, and also came to realize with personal experience, that people are naturally more intrigued by large-scale artworks. When viewing smaller works, it’s quicker to identify the entire context, the opposite happens when they are larger. You are only able to take in one aspect of the work, in order to see the entirety of it, you must step back, and when viewing a sculpture, walk around the object in order to see it completely. Naturally, the viewers take more time to analyze and assess the artwork, therefore making it more memorable, and having a better understanding of it. However, when working with a smaller scale, the context can be easily identified, in some ways, this is helpful to the artist when attempting to send a particular message or theme. It is an interesting juxtaposition when you create something that is originally small, large. Insects are small, and they are most often identified because of their shape before anything else. When making an insect small, even when removing their ‘natural; colours and genetic makeup, they are still easy to identify. When you scale up this size, even though they are most commonly related to being small, it is easy to see that they are insects. I was interested in this and so I decided to attempt to create my own insect sculptures.

I made this butterfly sculpture using an apple and some wire. I thought that the apple would make a nice shape and colour for the wings, and used the metal for the body. I chose to do a butterfly because I think that the shape of the wings, and the way they span much farther than the body, would make for an interesting sculpture. I enjoy how the viewer (Flatmate Josh) is helping to show the relationship between the assemblage and the viewer in this photo. He can walk underneath the wings, he could also touch it if he wanted to. After doing the digital assemblages, I found that considering the relationship between the sculpture and its exhibiting space, and how it can impact the viewer, can allow for the artwork to become much more effective. I hoped to show my consideration of this on my site. There is a boundary between the viewer and the sculpture, but the boundary is broken by the sculpture itself. The hill looks as though it climbs up towards the wings. It is an interesting site to place this sculpture on because the site itself helps the viewers to identify the assemblage, to see all of the different parts of it even though it is huge. It looks as though the sculpture is meant for this space.

Colour can change the impact that an object can have on the viewer. Something that originally would be scary, can become interesting and welcoming when utilizing colours, the same happens in the opposite way. Bright colors are most commonly identified to communicate a feeling of safety or welcoming. Spiders in particular are known to be scary, and they are largely identified in black. I was interested in seeing what the effect would be if I made a spider, much larger than a normal one, using bright colours. The interesting concept of this is that, more often, if spiders are considered to be scary when they are small and are then made larger, they would become more frightening. But with a different combination of colour, the reaction from the viewer can become very different. When placing my spider assemblage in this site, my flatmates and I honestly started to find it funny. The assemblage was flailing in the wind, it was only just holding on to the tree with the yarn. What made it funnier was that you could see the assemblage from very far away. And when you could see it flying everywhere off of the tree branch in a blur of orange, it implored you to have a closer look at it. This was an interesting exercise to attempt. I did not expect the reaction that I had when viewing the spider. My flatmates even had the idea for me to create multiple of them and place them around Cornwall park. It could be a very interesting avenue to explore!

I must say that I am also interested in the relationship between my assemblages. The photo with both my butterfly and spider in it was what sparked my interest. I found it interesting how these two assemblages only communicate the shape, and anatomy of the insects I am describing, but when placed in a context such as a predator, prey, composition, the context and meaning are easily identifiable without the caption.

I think that my assemblages were in one way or another, quite successful. I hope that my next assemblages are made with a little bit more dignity – they won’t fall to pieces or unravel as easily. But I am interested to see where this will take me, and what others will suggest in the critique tomorrow!

Verisimilitude ‘Real: Site Interventions

For this Brief, I will be gaining inspiration off of Louise Bourgeois work of arachnid sculpture site interventions. Her use of metal allows for the thin structure of her sculptures to remain strong through weather impacts, even without a thick foundation to hold still. Her use of bold, block color with the slight pop of white in the spider eggs allows for clear communication of colour in consideration of the subject matter she is working with. Scale is the biggest impact in her work, her large sculptures allow for people to walk underneath her work, exploring the artwork from many different angles.

I want to explore the impacts of material use in site interventions. My use of yarn, metal, and fruit propose interesting opportunities as yarn and metal are both thin and long, often when largely accumulated, are used to make things. The metal will be interesting to use as it can hold its own shape, and in comparison to the yarn, where it is a soft form that needs foundations to hold its shape, it will be an interesting combination of both hard and soft materials. I am also interested in how colour can impact the boldness of an intervention, big or small. I want to explore how my combination of materials can affect the communication between my inspirations and the audience, whether they can identify the subject I am depicting regardless of scale. I want to explore the use of scale, and how it affects the assemblage in the site e.g. making it more or less noticeable, impact on the audience, interaction with the environment and audience – thinking about how it interacts with the trees or plants around it, whether it is large enough for people to walk under, and what will that do in effect of its environment. I want to explore how the materials affect the visual texture of the assemblage, whether it is cold or hard to touch and how these elements could affect the site intervention, does it fit with the environment? or do my materials visually separate it from the environment?.

For my use of materials, I will be incorporating a variety of coloured yarn, fruit, and also wire to create my site interventions. This is stemming from the site interventions I attempted in week 2. Through the use of photoshop, I will be able to create site interventions that explore the impact that my use of scale has on my assemblages. I will first construct around 2 insects, to then bring to my site and with the use of yarn, attach them to the site. I will need to consider my accessibility to my materials, specifically the wire that I will be using as it will be more difficult to replace than the yarn. My site will be based at Cornwall park. And with this, I will need to make sure I exercise proper social distancing and the wearing of a mask when I go outside. I will need to consider the impacts my work will have to the environment and work to avoid causing any damage. I will need to make sure I deconstruct my assemblages once I am finished with them so that they do not become rubbish.

Through a series of photographs, I will be presenting my site interventions. My photographs will incorporate a range of perspectives, both close-up and far away to further assess the impacts my sculptures have on the sites, and also the subject matter. It will help to identify how and where my materials interact with one another.

Verisimilitude

From Thursday to Monday we were tasked with making a virtual exhibition space with our assemblages ‘exhibiting’ in them. I had a lot of trouble converting my assemblages to the glb file needed in order to put our assemblages into art space. It was difficult because the 3D rendering on photoshop took around an hour or more each time, even though I had changed my file size on meshmixer to a maximum deviation of 0.01. It was quite confusing but I managed to place three of my assemblages into my exhibition space. I got very frustrated because I had made around 5 assemblages but they wouldn’t load onto artspace. One of them loaded, but only showed a white sphere tube thing which I decided to include to show that I had at least attempted to include my assemblages. My other assemblage would not load onto my exhibition space. I did go back and reduce file size, 3D render again, and attempt to place it in my exhibition space again but it didn’t work for the second time. Much frustration with this section of the brief, but I did enjoy making my assemblages and figuring out how to use colour.

I attempted to scale my assemblages quite large so that the viewers could catch all the smaller details of my assemblages. They were difficult to capture visually because my file sizes were very small, and so my objects were less detailed, which is why I attempted to make them larger.

The exhibiting relationship between the sculpture and the position it is exhibited in is very deliberate. When viewing this assemblage, you can see that each spike is impaling an object – either a skull or a potted plant. When exhibiting this assemblage, I wanted to emphasize the impaling aspect, and I found that I could make the assemblage ‘impale’ the wall in a similar manner with the objects, except the function of this is more practical rather than aesthetic. If this exhibition were to be in real life, the viewer would be able to make the connection between the idea of impaling, with the assemblage impaling the wall. The difference with artspace, however, is that the assemblages can be placed anywhere, with a disregard to gravity, space for viewers, and safety precautions. This in turn impacts the thought processes of the viewers. What would stand out more is the sheer size, colour, and aesthetics of the assemblage. Regardless of exhibiting aesthetics, the assemblage is visually impactful. The growth coming out of the wall, depicting a weird sphere assemblage with multiple objects impaled into it, poses an interesting visual experience. The nature of the objects i.e. skull, potted plant, and sea urchin, would never realistically work in real life. The sea urchin is typically much smaller (around the size of a football at most), and would not have the strength to hold up both large and small potted plants and skulls. The sinister aspect of human skulls impaled into an object is – in real life – something which would be scary and weird, not to mention that some of the heads are very large. The potted plants would be much too heavy to hold up by the sea urchin, and they would be very difficult to keep in place as the plant and the soil would likely fall out.

This assemblage is interesting because it is really invasive. The octapus-like objects coming out of the center of the assemblage enter the viewer’s space, interrupting the artwork-viewer relationship in terms of space and physical interaction. If the assemblage was in a real-life exhibition, the sheer scale would allow the viewers to interact with the sculpture by entering its exhibiting space, walking underneath the extending objects. This brings a very personal experience with the assemblage, it allows for a close-up look at the sculpture, discovering all of the smaller aspects and objects, details that would be missed if the assemblage was smaller.

Link to my virtual Exhibition:

https://www.artsteps.com/view/615e2ca9e88873aef04c0ce5

Reflection:

Exhibiting in a virtual space allows for artistic exploration without the implications of real life. No need to worry about gravity, scale, restrictions of the objects I used, as well as the sensual experience people often have when attending a real-life exhibition. It was an interesting exploration of the restrictions of real-life sculpture and digital sculpture. Digital work allows for much more creative freedom, but in making digitally, you miss out on the experience of visual and tactile texture, the ability to touch and smell, and the experience of realizing the sheer size of these works. You miss out on the relationship between your body and the sculpture, the lack of a true personal measure of scale, which is most often explored when people can physically walk up to sculptures and compare the scale naturally with their own size and height, is missed.

Verisimilitude

Today we were tasked with making two digital assemblages using the found objects that we acquired. I managed to make three assemblages using similar/the same objects because I couldn’t see which items were which in meshmixer, they were all the blank boxes. I did find it difficult to figure out how to load them onto photoshop, and although I was following the steps, I could not add colour to my assemblages :(. I would like to make more assemblages with different objects, but for now, I have made these three :).