two weeks into our 3 week self-initiated project.
I am interested in the conscious, unconscious, the vulnerability of the anatomical form. For this project I wanted to investigate the resistance of the non-physical: emotion, identity, soul, in contrast with the fragility of the physical form. I have a curiosity in the qualities of skin and flesh, flaws, sagging. I am exploring the stripping down of physical form in art, as if in attempt to discover where soul meets body.
I've been looking at work by Chloe Piene, probably my favourite artist at the moment, her line drawings exploring naked figures, sometimes so naked that they're exposing muscle and bone, and in turn expressing nakedness of emotion and identity. She challenges our usual consideration of the body as a solid mass, she emphasizes it instead as a shell in which something much more powerful resides, something we have little knowledge or control of.
I've been looking at work by Chloe Piene, probably my favourite artist at the moment, her line drawings exploring naked figures, sometimes so naked that they're exposing muscle and bone, and in turn expressing nakedness of emotion and identity. She challenges our usual consideration of the body as a solid mass, she emphasizes it instead as a shell in which something much more powerful resides, something we have little knowledge or control of.
So far I've been producing smaller-scale models, experimenting with ideas, materials, processes to develop further. Some picaatures:
I've also been influenced by Louise Bourgeois and her interest in the unconscious, in particular her ‘hysteria’ works, in which she explores the boundaries and relationship between extreme psychological and physical conditions, as in Arch of Hysteria:
And Mark Quinn, his latex body cast hangings exploring the fragility of the physical. You Take My Breath Away:
fannying about.
Final piece from our last 6 week project:
The project was divided into 3 two week mini-projects:
2 weeks of observational drawing and drawing and drawing the same object, 48 times. I had a boot to draw, over and over and over and over, 48 times, driven MAD.
2 weeks of 'materials process action' taking the most successful drawings to develop further, but instead of focusing on 'observing' we had to focus on the 'process' of drawing, drawing for the sake of drawing, experimenting with processes and a variety of materials.
2 weeks of developing and resolving the ideas that had emerged in the last 4 weeks into some sort of 'final piece' to exhibit in the studio.
Some photos from the process, a bit of an explanation of how I got to my final idea:
Drawing my boot in wire
Drawing using the boot:
Began drawing onto my boot. Interested in areas otherwise ignored.
Developed this further by drawing onto other areas of my surroundings considered mundane, taken for granted, or objects otherwise discarded. I became interested in the creation of new 'worlds' through highlighting surface textures, transforming otherwise discarded materials.
I became really interested in creating minute new worlds. I wanted to experiment with the fragility of life-spans and giving new life to discarded objects. I started re-working discarded tea-lights and matches and wax.
I created over 100 individual worlds inside tea-light holders, and had to decide on a way to exhibit them in the studio. I thought about fixing them to the wall in a grid, but felt this had too much of a rigid, museum feel to it, too much of a 'preservation of death' when I was trying to create new life. I experimented with having them 'grow' up the wall like a fungus, playing on the idea of the re-growth and rapid reproduction of mould. If we'd had more time I would have produced even more to grow further up the wall and out of the ceiling.
The project was divided into 3 two week mini-projects:
2 weeks of observational drawing and drawing and drawing the same object, 48 times. I had a boot to draw, over and over and over and over, 48 times, driven MAD.
2 weeks of 'materials process action' taking the most successful drawings to develop further, but instead of focusing on 'observing' we had to focus on the 'process' of drawing, drawing for the sake of drawing, experimenting with processes and a variety of materials.
2 weeks of developing and resolving the ideas that had emerged in the last 4 weeks into some sort of 'final piece' to exhibit in the studio.
Some photos from the process, a bit of an explanation of how I got to my final idea:
Drawing my boot in wire
Drawing using the boot:
Began drawing onto my boot. Interested in areas otherwise ignored.
Developed this further by drawing onto other areas of my surroundings considered mundane, taken for granted, or objects otherwise discarded. I became interested in the creation of new 'worlds' through highlighting surface textures, transforming otherwise discarded materials.
I became really interested in creating minute new worlds. I wanted to experiment with the fragility of life-spans and giving new life to discarded objects. I started re-working discarded tea-lights and matches and wax.
I created over 100 individual worlds inside tea-light holders, and had to decide on a way to exhibit them in the studio. I thought about fixing them to the wall in a grid, but felt this had too much of a rigid, museum feel to it, too much of a 'preservation of death' when I was trying to create new life. I experimented with having them 'grow' up the wall like a fungus, playing on the idea of the re-growth and rapid reproduction of mould. If we'd had more time I would have produced even more to grow further up the wall and out of the ceiling.
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