Author: Isabella

 I chose to make a site intervention for my final task as I felt I connected and worked best with this part of the brief. 

 For my site intervention, I decided to use my backyard as my location. I live in a suburban area where my street is now; a kiwi fruit orchid used to be. There is also another kiwi fruit orchard behind our house. It is hidden away by a retaining wall, fence and a giant net. I was interested in the relationship between the site’s original use vs what it is used for now. Using the kiwifruit, I was bringing the context of the kiwi fruit orchard back to its original site; before it was taken down for the houses to be built.

 This work titled Grow was made by an artist named SpY. SpY’s work is his way to see the reflection of a built environment. He uses his artworks to see urban areas in new and different ways.  This work just simply exist on its site, it does not demand the viewer’s attention and you might not even notice it if you were walking by. The work has its own organic aesthetics but has still been edited by human interaction. When you look at it closely you can see how it exhibits itself and stands out from the concrete wall; it doesn’t need to be exhibited in a gallery for it the work to come to life.

GROW, Besançon, France, 2013. SpY.

 Omar Aqil’s digital assemblages are made up of everyday objects but in human forms, there is also the added feature of human items, e.g glasses, clothing, shirts, hats, headphones. By doing this it gives the figures human like qualities.

when I came across the work of Matthew Plummer Fernandez, I could help but think how fun and inviting his work looks. The context behind the top work is also interesting, he took every version of mickey mouse he could find online and combined them together to make a single work.

 I was not able to embed the exhibition into the blogs, please find the link below.  https://www.artsteps.com/view/6163986ae16758b35c0620e7

I found to hard to come up with ideas for my assemblages when I had so many options to chose from. In order to narrow it down, I used objects and items that I encounter in everyday life; even though I had access to an unlimited amount of assorted objects. The order in which I placed the objects was very random and unnatural in some places. 

These assemblages together have a similarity between them but they are made of mostly different objects and assembled in different ways. I found that I work better when my assemblages are made up of depictable objects; things that look like a child has just put together, rather than unrecognisable forms and shapes. 

these are all of the objects I found and downloaded online, I enjoyed looking for objects as I had complete creative freedom and could use almost any item I found online in my work.

these are the digital assemblages I made using objects I found online

I spend a while trying to figure out meshmixer, I ran into so many problems with it, it would not let me download objects either. I thought it would just be best to try and see what I can make with that I have access to on meshmisxer.

I was only able to make one assemblage before my computer decided it couldn’t handle meshmixer and wouldn’t let me access the application. I hope that tomorrow I can try restart and redownload meshmixer.

A group of artists called How We Dwell curated an exhibition of assembled items. The items were all found washed up on the beach, polluting the ocean. They turn the rubbish into artwork. I enjoy how these artists haven’t just made assemblages, but they have used otherwise unwanted items that would end up polluting our earth. By giving them a new life, they have created meaningful conferences.

A work I came across by François Ghebaly grabbed my interest; the work has a sense of unstableness to it; as all the stacked items rely on the strength of the glass panels to hold it up. Even the fact that a tiny movement could cause the whole assemblage to fall and break gives it a sense of unsettling to the viewer; unlike the assemblage above, it is not bound or held together by anything other than weight and gravity.

This work is an assemblage made by an artist I could not find the names of, but I thought I had to include it. This work is made up of half an orange and half a lemon; they are both sewn together by a needle and thread. I was drawn to the almost forced nature of this work as it looks like the fruit is being made to be one instead of being separate. They are also joined by a needle and thread, making me think of a human-like element to it, like a human with stitches or an attached limb.

I thought that a good place to start with this brief was to have a look through my household ‘junk’ draw. I assume we are not the only family that collects random bits and bobs and stores them away for no apparent reason right? the thing about this junk draw is it takes things from all sorts of context and brings them all together; it has the most random things in it. I found it easier to make my material assemblage with smaller items rather than larger ones. some of them look like they have just been placed together.

I was interested in the works by Donald Lipski; I was first drawn to the small size of his works, they look like something you would just find lying around, they are not intimidating to the viewer. The fact that he started collecting these pocket-size sculptures as a child only adds to the attraction of this exhibition.