After Crit on Thursday, I wanted to reflect on my work and discuss further developents with my work.
My work, introduced by Emma, challenged desire. Juxtaposing the desirable sweets with the undesirable web, my work asked the viewer whether the sweets were desirable enough to break the web. I am very proud of my concept, even if my execution was rushed.
Some feedback I received was as follows.
More Webs / Bigger Webs. — exploring this could make access to the jar fully prevented and therefore up the risk vs reward. It could also obscure the ‘reward’ which makes the decision making even more difficult. Covering the top or wrapping the jar in webs are interesting development ideas.
A shifted container scale. Making the jars opening smaller, meaning a hand was unable to fit, or the fit was uncomfortable. This added discomfort would level the risk vs reward idea, especially if they are not initially discouraged by the webs.
A different web type. — Making the webs out of something other than thread was suggested, however no materials were suggested. Dental floss, hot glue, or fishing wire were all options I considered before starting. However, I turned off them because of the aesthetic of the thread. Something I considered was making the web sticky, whether actually tacky or just look sticky.
Further Presentation Ideas. It was mentioned that I could play with different desire objects and on a similar vein different ‘fears’ or deterrents. I really like this idea, and would probably take this route if I were to develop this idea further.
All in all, I am very pleased with my piece, and have a lot of ideas of where to go with this idea, were we to have more time to work.
Magda Sayeg, considered the founder of Yarn Bombing, seeks to explore the conversation between her material, woven fiber pieces, and the environment. She draws attention to objects within an environment that would otherwise fade into the background, and does this without taking away its identity, or stopping its functioning. The yarn pieces redefine the space and in that way are sculptural.
Magda Sayeg, off her website: http://www.magdasayeg.com/
Provocation
Magda seeks to preserve an objects functionality, but what would it take to strip the functionality away? In a conversation with James we discussed Spider Webs and how the natural reaction is a desire to avoid breaking or moving through them. The word that came up multiple times was ‘boundary’, and how something so fragile can shut off a space outright. I want to explore space and how hands as an extension of a person interacts with interventions to said space. This includes the mental aspect of spatial interactions in conjunction with the physical aspect. I think the intersection between the two is a super interesting playground.
Material and Process
I started with thinking about spaces where spider webs are found, and then where you wouldn’t want a web to be. I thought about what barrier or boundary a web could create, and where would you not want one. There were so many good places, such as covering a whole car, or in a very public place that forced viewers to move around it and therefore become inconvenienced. These ideas, however, were very grand and would take more time than I was able to invest. My conclusion was an enclosed space, where one had to place their hand into. I decided on a jar. The opening was only just big enough for my hand to pass through which meant creating anything inside would be awkward.
The second problem was then the web itself. I knew, after looking at Yarn Bombing art, that thread was the most interesting aspect, but I was unsure as to how to construct the web. I was inspired by tatting (lace weaving), to create a net out of embroidery thread. In the thinking process I decided to flip the yarn bombing idea on its head, and make the thread piece the afterthought in the viewers mind. Yarn bombing is colourful and draws attention, while my web is to be subtle and unassuming until the viewer is drawn in through other means, and is then turned away by the web. Having something bright and desirable, like sweets, means the expectation is raised before being dropped out from under the viewer when they realise they are unobtainable.
Presentation
I will present this work through photo documentation. The work translates itself into photos quite well, because it will be all about the inaccessibility of the sweets, and what better way to frame that feeling but a photo. There is physically no way to get the sweets, just the thought of how to get past the web, or whether the viewers hand would fit in the jar. If we could do in person work , I would leave the Jar to be interacted with by the viewers. I think the various reactions and attempts at interaction would be very interesting to capture on photos.
Adrian and I worked collaboratively on a hallway piece for a virtual gallery. Unfortunately, the finished piece was too big for the program, and so were the other pieces I wanted to install.
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This work would have been a hallway installation, being walked through so you experience it all around. The gallery would then have split into two rooms, one for my pieces and one for Adrian’s.
I modeled my half of the hallway after my Fish/chair work. The combination of man-made and animal was super fascinating and I wanted to do more experimenting with the idea. I love fishtank decorative pieces, and the chair pile does remind me of this sort of thing.
If I were to install this piece into a real gallery I would make the room feel underwater to give the idea that we are also fish within the tank along with the sculptures.
From 2015 to 2016, Shiv Integer worked on a Bot tat randomly created Assemblages from randomly downloaded Thingiverse models. It would then repost these Assemblages on the website and start again. The bot has no object value, no preference, it just amasses and assembles.
I found this work in the ‘3D Additivist Cookbook’. The projects there are presented with a transcript of the process the bot takes overlaid with the final image. I think the assemblages themselves are super interesting to look at, and the bot as this interesting way of joining objects together. It seems to join at edges, creating these pieces where all the objects are forthcoming as to their original form, but also being seamlessly merged with each other where the viewer is unsure were one starts and the other begins.
I think this technique is very unique, and fully process driven. I like the final project, but I think emulating this style could be complicated.
Ken Kelleher –
Ken Kelleher works with basic elemental shapes, altering them until he is satisfied. He describes his sculptures as curiosity made physical.
‘Inner Fidelity’
‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’
Only some of Kellehers sculptures are what I would consider Assemblage. This is down to the number of obvious elements to each piece, as a lot of his works are one object manipulated. I really enjoy looking at Kellehers work, especially ‘Shine on You crazy Diamond’. The way the objects are put together looks both precarious and strong, as it balloons out from a single object at the bottom. The sculptures are made digitally, then digitally placed in a real space.
So, I really struggled with Meshmixer. It took some time to get used to, but we were able to work together after a couple days of practice. The models were a different story, but here we are!
Models
Object List
Fish
Chair
Crown
Plane
Bottle
Diamond
Sword
Spoon
Palm Tree
Table
Cup
Egg
Nut and Bolt
Skull
Lightbulb
Downloaded off ‘free3D.com’, all these objects were pretty good quality. A few came as sets and had to be separated in order to be used to their full potential. Looking for objects was surprisingly difficult as I was always thinking about their use in an assemblage and discarded a lot of options based on this.
They came together in super interesting ways, and I am actually really happy with these assemblages. There was some doubt in my mind that I would get them done without tears shed, but they turned out really wacky and fun.
‘Mirror’
This is the first complex mix I made, before I could get objects working. It came about purely on chance.
Made of circles and other objects, It came together in a super cool way.
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‘Trees’
This assemblage started as a want to make a pot plant. I also really liked the spoon I found. In combining them I found I liked the tree in the cup, and wanted to repeat the idea.
I would try this again but with a different plant. I had a very hard time finding trees that were .obj files, and I don’t really like the one I found but it does look wicked in this assemblage.
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‘Fishies’
This assemblage is my favourite. It was the last one I did, so I had a handle on things. The fish mixed with the table stacking is super awesome, and I actually had fun with this one.
I want to keep working with this idea of furniture meets weird situations, such as fish.
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All in all, I don’t think I would use mesh mixer again. However, I am really happy with how my work turned out and I’m sure I would get better if I kept trying.
Inspired by La Wilson, this piece is a collection of objects found around the house. I tried to group them as like objects based on materials.
I think this piece is quite pretty in an odd way, and would try this again with different objects and group based on colour.
2
This is a photo of my material box. I thought it was really visually interesting in a cluttered, random, way. The materials fit together in a chaotic way, with the textures and colours juxtaposing.
3
I decided to group by colour, and I had a lot of green objects. The touches of other colours are really interesting and give the eye some resting places.
I would do this again as I think its really pretty, with more objects. It would be more effective with more layers so everything was different shades of green, and different textures. Arranging this Assemblage was really relaxing when I got into the flow, and I was almost disappointed when I ran out of objects.
4
This piece was a continuation of my previous work after some feed back. it was suggested that I make it bigger, which is what I tried. I had the issue of not having enough pieces to work with, but I am happy with the result. The plastic looks really cool against the backdrop. Doing this again I would add more wood features, or colour. The limited colour palate brings the pieces together into a more unified piece, however it is a bit boring to look at.
5
This was the last piece I made. I really enjoyed putting this work together and having it suspended.. Because it was suspended, the pieces I put together had a really interesting relationship. They all had different weights that comes through in the photo. The plastic was light compared to the heavy porcelain, and it shows in how it sits. I enjoyed making it, and therefore would do it again but larger.
In conclusion, I think my experiments were successful but would be cooler if I made them bigger. If I were to do them again I would collect more things or make things. I would extend my ideas using rubbish or recycled materials to do origami or to make a more complex sculpture.
I was inspired by Sarah Sze, a mixed medium artist based in America. Her work ‘Afterimage’, 2018, was a particular inspiration. It explores how “Images function as tools to make sense of the world”. The work discusses the collision of images we as humans process daily and how we remember them.
“Circling the circumference of the gallery, the constellations of images shift in scale, fade, disappear, re-emerge, creating a storyboard of how an image is burned into memory and persists over time.”
Her earlier sculpture works, such as ‘Seamless’, 1999, are a wonder of intricacy.
“Seamless 1999 incorporates functional, human-scale items, for example a ladder. Other handmade elements, such as tiny bridges made from matchsticks, use a scale that relates to fictional miniature worlds.”
When researching Sarah Sze, I came across a couple of other artists I liked the style of.
Robert H. Hudson
“After Wood” was found scrap steel. The metal had some feeling of wood grain or whatever. Just in painting it popped it out and made it look more like that. Every time it changes, or you look at it from a different perspective, so it’s something that you can look at over and over and over again and probably never see it in that same view. I was always working with balance point. I had to keep track of that and then put it together and paint it.” -https://americanart.si.edu/artist/robert-hudson-2341
Robert Hudson was initially inspired by ceramic arts, and used that to jump into making works that ‘blur the line’ between painting and sculpture. I really like his work because they are so visually striking. They look simple at first glance, but looking closer you discover the intricacies of the work. One thing I would take away from these works is the illusion Hudson uses to make one material look like another. I think disguising the materials is a really interesting technique and creates a cool look.
Jean Tinguely
“Tinguely developed his kinetic sculptures known as “metamatics” to explore the absurd side of humanity’s reliance on technology. ”
Narva, 1961
An assemblage kinetic sculpture made from old car parts. Materials include rubber, axels, and scrap metal.
Tinguely’s sculpture Narva is a beautiful assemblage sculpture that I find really interesting. Because of the nature of the parts I wouldn’t call this a beautiful sculpture, but the detail is stunning. The materials are the important part of this sculpture, along with its movement, and therefore are proudly what they are. Very similar to Sza in the way that the materials don’t hide what they are, and are cluttered but form a clean shape.
La Wilson
There is much to say about La Wilson and her sculptures. She started with painting, transitioning to sculpture early in her career. She collected things like a crow, always hunting.
” “I never set out to say something with a particular piece, I wouldn’t know how,” she once told Gómez. “I just take things I’m intrigued by; nothing is planned.” “
La Wilson’s work was playful, witty and meticulous. I am fascinated by her work, and Its a shame not much was written about her process. She seems to group objects, either by colour or material, or feeling. I love the attention to detail and especially in ‘retrospective’ the snapshots of materials used. Her style of assemblage is simple but stunning.
“I’m interested in the enclosed space of comfort and safety that also becomes a space of confinement and anxiety. And also a space that is alive both alongside and apart from the human drama that takes place in it.” -Ramos, Juxtapoz.com magazine
‘STUFFed’ Sophie Ramos, The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, 2019.
Sophie Ramos’ work is bright and colorful and insanely visually appealing. I love the interaction between objects and paint/pattern. It pulls the installation together in a way I’d love to try. The textural elements clashing with the smooth but vivid backgrounds is stunning.
It feels so organic and lively, full of life. “I have always thought of my sculptures and spaces as characters or imaginary friends, so sound has been a great new addition to my work to activate the objects and bring a static space to life.”- Ramos, https://www.architecturaldigest.com
Brief: “An important aspect of making assemblages is then the way the parts are combined: the way they are joined, connected, attached, amalgamated, intertwined… We thus want you to pay particular creative attention to the junctions, intersections, linkages, seams, couplings… between materials.” “look for similarities and contrasts in shape, texture, colour and scale. See what ‘fits’ together. Use other materials to fasten things together. Don’t get too complicated to start with – keep the relationships in the assemblage clear and simple even if they are repeated multiple times. Work quickly – perhaps dissembling, and reassembling works into new ones.”
These assemblages were a lot of fun to put together. I could have sat on my bedroom floor for hours just tinkering around with the bits and pieces I pulled from the rubbish and my collection of recovered things.
There was a lot of stuff to choose from when gathering items, but I picked stuff I found interesting and excited me. This includes beads, pins, rubbish saved from the recycling bin, and recovered pottery. Then, I simply tried stuff together. I tried to match lines or holes together. As I got into the groove I made works I was more impressed with relying on various methods of attachment.
1
I really like this work because of its visual complexity and limited colour palate. The clear plastic lends itself to being punctured and threaded by the wood. Each piece in this is being held there by the support of the other objects. The overhanging bit above the plastic cup is just resting within the wooden ‘beams’ inside the cup, and is then counter-levered and sports the final plastic piece resting delicately on top.
I was really proud of my ability to pull the creative joints off without the assemblage falling apart. I also love the final visual effect.
2
These two works are some of my favourite. Porcelain is such a beautiful material to work with. It makes such clean lines and clear shapes in the air. I used the gold twine to support the pieces in standing upright within the base as it was the closest string I had on hand, but it works beautifully with the gold edge on one of the broken pieces. It also mimics kintsugi the Japanese art of highlighting the imperfections and cracks in pottery by repairing them in gold.
The second photo is the aftermath as I removed the pieces resting in the web of gold. There is something both intentional and random about the strings placement without the context of holding things within.
3
This piece is suspended on the top of the dowel held in my hand. I couldn’t get good photos of it due to the spinning it did, but I was quite proud of this work. The plastic and tin contrast with the wood of the base, and the hint of a gold fastening in the back holding the two together.
4
I wanted to further explore interesting attachments, so I decided to capture the ball in the frame with only pins. They’re very visible and become a part of the sculpture, instead of just an attachment method. The initial result is very clean and unblemished, the colours stark against each other and the pins catching the light.
The second iteration started with me wanting to highlight the pins, and finished with me handing stuff off them just to see what it would look like. I didn’t end up liking the result, it was cluttered and not my vibe, however, It was an experiment that I enjoyed doing.
5
Following the above sculpture, I wanted to see how the pins would hold in other materials. The tin didn’t hold them super great and many fell out, but the ones that stayed made such an interesting layer of the colour on the black. After this, I took a look at the previous sculpture and started adding beads to this one. The clear sparkly colouring of the beads allowed some light to pass through in interesting ways so I turned to stacking them on the pins.
I really like the precarious nature of the beads piled like that because initially it looks very fragile, but with the pins holding them together they’re very sturdy.
6
This was my favourite piece. Each piece is only balancing on the other, with some clever folding and warping of the materials.
The arches created with the white/silver materials are so clean and simple. They’re very similar materials, two items flimsy and malleable, and the rest unyielding. Its the sort of thing I didn’t expect to make which makes it even better.
“You are invited to go out-side to make a series sculptures or site interventions in your garden, yard or driveway”
1.
“UMBRELLA STAND”
After looking at the artist models in the brief, I was inspired by Layne Waerea, (Waiting for) Free Rain, 2014. She hangs buckets on a washing line, and this gave me the idea to do something similar with different objects. The monkey bars are overgrown and make a great backdrop for a photo and I desperately wanted to change the space. I was imagining this space as a tunnel or enclosed space when inventing ideas, and when I thought of the umbrellas I was so excited to try. The umbrellas work within the space of the monkey bars, and wouldn’t hold the same shape without the bars there. The plants are also doing their part in holding the umbrellas up and off the grass. They fill the space out really well, and look super striking within the space.
2.
“NO PLAYING”
With Adrian within our bubble, we collaborated on a series we called “No Playing”. We used chalk to write a subversion of the action you would normally perform on these objects. These are very site specific, due to the words being specific to the objects and their relationship to each other around the playhouse. Without the context of this being a private play area, these signs would not have the same impact. This is because of Covid-19, and all public playgrounds being closed to the public. A private play space being off-limits is unnecessary and strange so this intervention is interesting and unexpected.
3.
“CLOCK”
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4
“SPIDERS WEB”
The tire swing has been around in the garden since I was a kid. Every time we have used it since it was put up, it was covered in spiders webs that had to be cleared off before being used. I decided to use some thick rope to weave my own web to keep this swing from being used. The whole piece makes such a stunning sight, especially in the bright sun. It almost glowed. I just had fun and played with this one, weaving the rope into patterns intuitively.
I think I’d enjoy continuing with the spider web idea. As a person with a fear of spiders I do prefer to steer clear of places with webs, but I can acknowledge how stunning webs are. I would love to embrace the shapes of spiders webs in my work.
