Author: Keani

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Comfort is something we aspire to have everyday. In situations we are put through in our everyday lives, we constantly ponder on whether we feel comfortable with the things we are doing. Sometimes it is good to step outside of our comfort zone, but also sometimes it is healthy for us to stay within a zone where we are comfortable.

In this brief I unpacked and explored different layers of comfort, and also the way in which objects can make us feel comfortable in different ways. The four different blankets pictured above are all sentimental objects. They were purchased on the day we first met each other, I figured these would create a good starting point for the sculpture. After experimenting with the blankets, I decided to design a fort in my living room using my two couches, the blankets and a few pillows. Blankets forts are a common creation throughout many childhoods. I figured this would be an interesting way to explore comfort, as I know when I was younger I would build forts typically to sleep in. Creating a fort allowed me to discover the nostalgia within it, and how with nostalgia you are able to feel comfortable drifting into the memories. With the use of the blankets, the element of physical comfort was able to be felt. Obviously with the softness and warmth felt from the blankets, this would create a comfortable environment.

The sculpture I was able to create from using objects allowed me to look into the ideas of nostalgia, warmth, softness, sentiment and memory, all things that are integrated with comfort. The exploration of these ideas made me have more of an appreciation for the fort sculpture that I created. The relationship between the sentimental blankets with the nostalgic fort created different layers of comfort within the sculpture.

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I took some time to let myself relax into the blankets and pillows within the fort, and think about the feelings I felt within the fort. To bask in the child-like feeling that the fort created. Also the reminiscent feeling that the blankets created. After around what seemed like a long time, I got up reflected on the mark that had been created by myself from laying in the space. The sight of scrunched up blankets and pillows created a visual representation of what physical comfort looks like. For a lot of us, the sight of a messy bed is relatable during the time of a lockdown as much time is spent in the comfort of our beds. ‘Oh, So Quiet’ is a prominent feeling I felt as I lay in the fort, staring out of the huge windows in my apartment.

Verisimilitude – Real: Comfort

‘Blanket stories’, a sculpture piece by Marie Watt, explores an idea of comfort using blankets that are able to tell a story of life and family. Using objects that provide us with comfort, allows us to exploit a space with meaning. We are able to engage in the space with more empathy when we use objects we find comfort in, or objects that hold meaning.

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Within this brief, you are tasked to explore the different layers of comfort that space and objects can bring you. Identify a space within your home (or wherever) and bask in the feelings that are brought to you. Look for things that bring you joy or nostalgia, explore the comfort you feel within these places and sit with it for a while. This brief asks you to explore the emotions that an occupied space can bring you. Does it remind you of a happier place? Could you fall asleep here? Does it hold any meaning?

Search for objects in your home that hold significance, and make you feel comfortable. For example, our blankets and pillows could be objects that we find comfort in during this time in lockdown. Occupy a space with these objects in different ways that make you feel comfortable. This could be on your body, on the floor, bed, etc. Create 1-2 sculptures using different objects in the space. Do not buy anything, use what is accessible to you.

Document these sculptures by taking photo or video footage. Make sure to post these images or video footage to your blog by 9am, Thursday 14th. Along with the images, include a summary that explains the feelings you encountered while occupying these spaces. Was it comfortable for you? Also, what emotions did you feel?

Art Steps Exhibition

The short box code won’t work when I put it in so here is the link to my exhibition:

https://www.artsteps.com/embed/61641d1f41ef3c02c47f0283

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My exhibition that I would like to share is called ‘Immaterial’. It features four assemblage sculptures that focus on the exploration of the human body, mixed with the contortion of objects as well. The title immaterial represents the idea that is drawn from society’s view of human bodies. From as long as we can remember, body image and the way society criticizes other bodies has been prevalent. The sculptures that are featured in this exhibition show distorted versions of human bodies, representing a more complex view of the way our bodies change. Everyone’s bodies look different.

I thoroughly enjoyed being able to create this series of sculptures. Using the online format got a bit tricky at times but in the end I managed to figure most of it out. I had a lot of trouble with reducing the file sizes to be put into Art Steps, it took be around an hour jut to get it. There were two other sculptures that wouldn’t allow me to put them in the exhibition which was super annoying. But oh well.

Jesse Kanda

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Jesse Kanda is a Japanese artist who specializes in 3D digital art. Jesse is also a musician based in London. His art practice is based on creating 3D digital album covers for many people such as Arca, Bjork and FKA Twigs. How I discovered Jesse Kanda was through listening to Bjork, who has very interesting album covers, I became intrigued and decided to research the artist behind them. I later discovered the he had created the album covers for other musical artists that I stream (such as Arca and FKA Twigs).

Jesse Kanda had an influence within my work, as I was interested in his idea of using human body parts and manipulating them in ways that they look unconventional. I used a lot of warped boy parts within my work. Also his digital work in music videos is fascinating to watch. He uses ideas of contorting and warping bodies in different shapes.

“When you see Kanda’s art you can’t help but think about his perception of beauty, it’s a spectrum of emotion often metamorphosed pain into beauty. The Japanese-born, Canadian raised self-taught artist combines his unfamiliarities and influences into his art while unafraid of exploring new avenues. While he’s widely known for his visual art, he also detours into music a passion that he’s always had – creating his 13-track debut album accompanied with 10 original artworks. Here, Doon Kanda presents: Labyrinth.”

“My biggest fear that has informed a lot of who I am, that I’m constantly working on, is not being understood; which is also loneliness – the sense of not belonging,” he writes to me over email from Tokyo, where he is currently based. We discuss unfamiliarity and how these instances of whether it’s within an environment or identity impact creativity. It seems as though Kanda is dreaming up different worlds constantly making space for himself when the world often tries to put you in boxes. “Making a world that I belong in, that couldn’t be taken away from me, was appealing to me,” he muses. In honour of today’s (November 29) release of Labyrinth, we thought it was time to find out what is beautiful to Jesse Kanda, what the process is like for a person with a distinct approach to beauty, and how this has translated into music.”

Jesse Kanda on the beauty of organs, loneliness, and new album labyrinth. (2019, November 29). Dazed. https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/soul/article/46985/1/jesse-doon-kanda-artist-musician-labyrinth-debut-album-interview

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The piece titled ‘Bubblegum’ shows a human/dragon hybrid being meshed into a shoe that has been inflated. With this assemblage I had seen one of my shoes on the floor with a bunch of random items stuffed inside, I decided to try and recreate this. I ended up discovering the dragon and human and just putting them together, also adding the shoe with the figurine inside. I puffed up the shoe while playing around with the sculpting tools. I liked that this reminded me of a child’s room, with toys being left in random places.

With the skull face piece I honestly just began placing random pieces together. After playing around the placements of things, I began to be reminded of an album cover of an artist (named Arca) that I had been listening to forever. The random assemblage of morphed objects was so similar to the cover.

Using mesh mixer over the weekend, I developed an understanding around how to use most of the tools. I also started to experiment with color. I started to experiment with body parts and how I could distort them in different ways. I just basically became fascinated with putting human body parts on random objects and also playing around with color.

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Honestly I struggled a lot with trying to make an assemblage. This is not really a finished product but I had spent most of my day trying to navigate the whole system. I watched all of the help videos but when I was experimenting with assembling objects, everything came to a halt and I just struggled.

This assemblage was the somewhat successful one that I managed to create. I had a dragon object that I replaced the head with a human one. I meshed it with a shoe and also another object of a head. This was very underwhelming but in the midst of this I am trying to gain more skill with adding color (for some reason it just wouldn’t work?). I am not sure if it is the laptop I am using but things just aren’t functioning properly.

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After playing around a little bit more with the basics, I ended up with this creation of assemblages. I used a plethora of different heads and arms and played around with the sculpting tools.

Evgeny Ches

Evgeny Ches is a graffiti and contemporary artist from Moscow, Russia. Evgeny created a series of works called CelloGraffiti (2016) where he used cellophane stretched between two trees and graffiti art of various things to create an illusion. One thing that intruiged me within his works was his use of cellophane. From first glance I was interested in the way the cellophane moving between the tress created some sort of assemblage. The use of the cellophane takes an empty space and fills it up, while still looking somewhat invisible.

Within some of my works you can notice the inspiration I drew from this. I was inspired by his works to use glad wrap on a larger scale. By stretching it between my couches and intertwining it through a stack of chairs, it shows the idea of the glad wrap creating an assemblage and taking up space.

Most street artists use urban spaces as their canvas, but Moscow-based graffiti artist Evgeny Ches takes to the forest to create his art. Inspired by the work of French artists Kanos and Astro, Ches uses a technique called CelloGraff, where he stretches cellophane around two trees, and spray paints his murals onto the transparent film. Ches’s spray-paintings depict life-like wild animals—including a dinosaur, a polar bear, a monkey, and even a giant squirrel—that almost look as though they’re really living among the forest trees.

Graffiti artist spray-paints giant animals onto plastic wrap in a forest. (2017, December 29). My Modern Met. https://mymodernmet.com/spray-paint-forest-animals-plastic-wrap-evgeny-ches/

Rick Owens

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One artist that has inspired me for the longest time is Rick Owens. Rick is widely known as a prolific fashion designer who takes the extra mile in terms of his creations. A piece of his that drew me in was a show he executed during Paris Fashion Week of 2016, where he had two humans strapped to each other while walking down the runway. Creating an assemblage of two people. Another piece that I thought to research was his coffee table piece where he had a wax sculpture of himself on all fours, with a sheet of glass on top.

I took an interest to the coffee table work as it related closely to my idea around using glad wrap suspended around furniture to take up space. I also drew inspiration from the fashion week piece to create the piece of the stacked chairs.

Rick Owens made headlines during Paris Fashion Week by sending models down the runway with real live humans strapped onto them like backpacks. But the runway stunt was nothing compared to the outré details found in Owens’ newly opened L.A. store on La Brea Avenue. Owens has an affection for his former hometown—he started his line here in  the ’90s, while living at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset, before relocating to Paris. “Hollywood is about self-invention,” Owens says, “and that’s where I invented myself. So opening a store there is kind of a special moment.”

Malmed, A. After Unleashing Human Backpacks, Rick Owens Opens in L.A. (2015, October 13). https://www.lamag.com/theclutch/after-unleashing-human-backpacks-rick-owens-does-man-seating/.

Rosalie Gascoigne

Rosalie Gascoigne is a New Zealand born artist who is based in Australia. In 1977 she created a piece called ‘Blue Water’. This assemblage piece speaks on the colonial history of Australia. Rosalie used an abundance of various objects to create this assemblage. Her fine work with placing these objects together inspired some of my work within the shoe rack sculpture, and also some of my pervious assemblage sculptures where I stacked various objects.

‘Blue Water’ has Gascoigne’s signature rustic aesthetic and palette of the land, and yet is unique in that it also speaks of the off-shore and colonial history of Australia. She assembles this story against a backdrop of Sydney Harbor cut from the Toohey’s Bitter Ale tin with an inspired selection of objects including maritime flags cut also from the beer tin, an ensemble of waving dolls arms, a fire extinguisher label and a Capstan Navy cut cigarette box. Like a time capsule, it is a work that evokes a history of a particular time and place, lovingly compiled from objects with histories of their own.

Glad Wrap Extension 1 and 2

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I decided to develop my ideas within using glad wrap. I thought about using glad wrap on a bigger scale, though I had minimal, glad wrap I decided to stretch it in between my couches. I started by assembling my couches opposite each other with my coffee table in the middle, the glad wrap was extended over top acting as a bridge. I liked the idea that it acted invisible if i pulled it tight enough, but when I let it go it also made interesting waves. This became my first assemblage.

I had experimented with placing things on top of the clear bridge to see if it was strong enough to support anything. At first everything I added on top would make it collapse (luckily I had the coffee table for support). I basically ended up taping the entire couch together to sustain the plastic sheet, while I added three pillows on top. The three pillows added gave it the essence of a hammock. These two different assemblages were very minimal but I enjoyed the way they looked. Getting to experiment with Glad wrap on a large scale and seeing how it can sustain objects was interesting to see.

Stacking

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Stacking shoes on cutting boards was a piece I featured at the beginning of this brief. I was interested in the idea of stacking things so I took this to a larger scale as well. I joined two chairs together to create a stacking assemblage, but they kept falling down every time I would stack them. I incorporated glad wrap into this sculpture again in order to hold everything together. I also used bits of tape to make things stick. The formation of crossing that was created by the glad wrap created an interesting illusion and also supported the structure a lot.

Shoe Rack

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After staring at this piece with just glad wrap and chairs I started to see a shoe rack/ bookshelf formation. It began to look like some complex piece of furniture. I started by adding my shoes into this again, I also placed some shopping bags on the top of it. This piece is pretty self explanatory, I basically just liked the way it looked like a piece of furniture so I added pieces to make it an assemblage of a shoe rack.

Drip Drip

As another extension I decided to use honeycomb! The glad wrap inspired yet another idea. As I was playing around with the glad wrap and forming it in different shapes I noticed a shape (similar to the honeycomb). This shape looked like liquid was dripping, and so I thought it would be interesting to make this assemblage out of food and see what it looked like. Within the image the honeycomb is still wet, but after time it began to harden (couldn’t get a picture as it broke) and look like the glad wrap had been coloured. This development of an assemblage was admirable to me. It also made as a yummy snack.