Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Updated Bibliography

Websites-
Skin deep, Dietrich Wegner, 2012
Date Accessed- March 2013

The Great Day of his Wrath, John Martin, 1851-3
Date accessed-March 2013

Alberto Seveso, 2013
Date accessed-March 2013

Alisha Wesselr, 2008
Date accessed-March 2013

Berndnaut Smilde, 2013
Date accessed-March 2013

Yasuaki Onishi, Reverse Volume, 2012
Date Accessed-April 2013

Margie Livinston, 2012
Online at- http://margie.net/
Date accessed-April 2013

Pascal Smelik, 2011
Date accessed-April 2013

Katie wallbanks, 2013
Date accessed-April 2013

Neha Deshmuck, art director, 2012
Date Accessed-May 2013

Lynda Benglis, 2013
Date accessed- May 2013

Esma Pascal Turam, 2008
Date accessed- May 2013





Books-
A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beauty, Edmund Burks, 1757
New york: P.F. Collier and son company, 1909-14 
New York: Bartleby.com, 2001
Date accessed-March 2013

The Uncanny 11, Sigmund Freud, 1919
Penguin Classics (September 30, 2003)
Date accessed-March 2013

Vitimin 3-D, New perspectives in sculpture and installation
Phaidon Press may 2009
Date accessed-May 2013

Philip Shaw, The Sublime,
Routledge 2006
Date accessed- May 2013

Claire Bishop, Installation art,
Routledge,2003 Taylor and Francis Group
Date accessed-April 2013

Jeremy Gilbert, Beauty and the contemporary sublime, 1999
Date accessed- April 2013

Nicholas Royle, 2003, The Ucanny
Date accessed- March 2013

Galleries
Light show, Hayward Gallery, Southbank
March 2013

Richard Hughes, Time is over, time has come, first site
May 2013









Action Plan
Through out my project my action plan changed, i added new artist, experimented with different materials and went to different exhibitions that influenced my work. I think my work had a natural progression to it. I found that as my project developed i became more interested int he concepts and theory that it led me to look at other artists who were influenced by them. I did stick to the main body of my action plan, i looked at theories and core artist related to them when i had planned to. I also stuck to the end of my project plan as i started to build my final piece when i had proposed. 

I think that the plan helped me to keep a check on the progress of my project. I kept referring to the action plan throughout my work, this stopped my from going of at a tangent and kept me thinking about the key points of my ideas. I think that i need to allow more time in my action plan as i was to ambitious, i though it would only take a week to experiment with some materials when it took my sometimes three. I need to make sure next time that i allow my self more time to fully develop a material or idea. I think that because of the action plan my time management throughout this project was good. I allowed my self enough time to make my final piece. This is something that i have not done on other project and it has let my final piece down. It also kept my up to date with my work books as i knew what theory i should be talking about and when i should be looking at certain artists. 
Audience
My work has not got a pacific audience  it hopefully will appeal to all types of people. I think it will appeal to children as it will look larger to them and more overwhelming, have a greater impact. My four year old niece really like the smaller versions as she did not know what they were made from they looked alien to her. My work it not feminist  it does not communicate political views or religious opinions. I think because of this is allows all people to appreciate it as art. It is made using house hold building materials, commonly know by most people. 



Final Piece development
Today i continued to build up my final piece, i added layers of netting filled with foam. I also tried to make the work more symmetrical so that it would hang evenly. I used a lot more foam in the outer layers of the sculpture as i wanted their to be less  netting showing as i think the foam in the expanding foam was more effective at communicating the temporary. I found it quite difficult to make the foam hang down through the netting, it fell off a lot, in the end tho i managed to use the right amount of foam so that you could see it from underneath and it would set in shape. 

I finished building it up today and i was really pleased with the final outcome. I like the size of it, i wanted it to be large enough so that it would be noticed on the ceiling but not so large that it would become to heavy to suspend. I like the fact that it is not symmetrical entirely as it then looks like it have been grown and not made. their is lots of foam hanging down lower than the nets which i think adds depth to the work. Clair another student said that she like the areas where just foam was showing, she said it looked like frozen liquid. This is what i wanted people to see and i think it communicates it effectively. 

I think my sculpture communicates the notion of the uncanny, it distorts the materials so that they become something new and different. It also uses the materials in a way that makes people question what they are. I think it effectively communicates the sense of the familiar and foreign. I also think that my sculpture looks at the theory of the sublime. I looked in to this theory loosely at the beginning, i liked the fact that it combined mixed emotions. I think my sculpture is sublime as it has a natural beauty to it through the shape, pattern and form of it, but t also has a sense of uncontrollable growth, it looks alien and strange. 

I looked at different was of suspending my work today after i had finished building it. I hung it from the beam at differed heights to see which was more effective. I think it looks better when it is one the beam so it looks like it has grown around the beam and not just hung from it. I liked the height of it, it allowed people to look up at it from all angles and stand under it and see all the detail. It also looks good when people walk in the door they can easily see it. 

I liked that the sculpture has many layers to it, through building it up this way it adds depth and form to the sculpture. It makes shadows and creases that look foreign and strange. It also looks natural the way all the shapes are unique. I said in my original project proposal that i wanted my work to have a sense of the natural to it. I did not as my work developed stick to this as i started to look more at materials and less at the natural occurrences in the world. I do however think that my final piece has a sense of growth and natural development to it. 

Tomorrow i need to make sure i secure it well to the high beam using fishing wire. I am going to use fishing wire as i do not want it to be seen, i want it look like it has grown out the ceiling not been hung on rope or chain. I need to make sure i attach all the sculpture from many different points so that it will be safe for people to walk under.


Tuesday, 28 May 2013

What is sculpture
Sculpture, a dictionary definition-"The art of carving, modeling, welding, or other wise producing figurative or abstract work in three dimensions  as in relief, intaglio or in the round." This talks about any work that is 3D, made from any material. The definition was widened in an online magazine by the British council of arts. They went on to say that sculpture is also "installation, land art, body art, performance art  text-based work, photography and video as well as the three dimensional art object". 

I wanted to look at the definition of what sculpture is, my work is sculptural based and i thought it would be interesting to see how it fits in to the category of sculpture. When i went to search sculpture many people talked about it through objects, never moving, never changing, a solid that has a definite shape and form. My work challenges this, i have tried to convey movement and the temporary throughout the use of sculpture  I have tried to use materials that change state that combine with each other. I think my work is sculpture but that it also looks a bit at performance, the way i want it to move, the way i build it up and the way it is made through combination. I think it will be interesting to explore this and see how it makes my work different. 

I was also very interested in installation, i have been looking at many artists who's work become an installation. i like the way it incorporates the viewer and fills a room. Installation is a kind of art that does not just focus on one object, it looks at the relationship between lots of different parts to the work, it brings the work into context. I think that later on i want my art to become installation based, to incorporates whole rooms and become part or the environment. 

Sunday, 26 May 2013

Changes to my original project proposal
I was looking thought my project proposal and i think it has slightly changed throughout my project. I did not change it intentionally but i think it has developed as my project had gone along and i have experimented more. I am still looking at the ephemeral, this still interests me a great deal and i think it is something that is going to continue to interest me after this project. I am pleased that i have stuck to my work being more sculptural as i wanted to get back to making and experimenting. I have really enjoyed looking at sculpture as form and shape interest me, being able to mold things and manipulate shapes. I said i was going to look at the impermanence of liquids, i did do  this at the beginning of the project i looked at ink in water. That experiment influenced my work thought out. My final piece is still looking back at the shapes and patterns created so that my sculpture looks natural and fluid like. I have also been using materials that start as a flowing liquid and set as a solid. 

I said in my project proposal that i would be looking at Lynda Benglis for inspiration, looking at her work, how it oozes across the room and looks like a moment frozen. I did look at Lynda but i do not think she needs to be include in my project proposal as she has not influence my work thought out. I think either Katie wall banks or alburt seveso would be more appropriate  These artists have a direct link through out my project and i kept referring back to them. 

I said that i would look at different ways or creating a frozen moment, i think i need to change this slightly. I am still looking at the frozen moment but more thought the use of materials. My work became material led and i need to talk about this in my project proposal. 

I have explored the notion of the uncanny, i have made reference to it throughout my work. I think this theory was really interesting and one which i will properly develop in later projects. My work is most like this theory as i look at distorting and combining materials so that they become something new. I did also look at the theory of the sublime thought out my work as although it was not intentional people found a sense of beauty in my work. I think this is thought the use of combining materials and so i have also made reference to this theory but my project is not as influenced by it as the notion of the uncanny. 

I said i would create large installations, i have now researched in to what installation and sculpture means to different people. I think that my work could become an installation but at this moment is More like a sculpture. I need to look more closely at what i believe sculpture is and how my work has branched away from installation. The materials that i said i would explore have also changed, i said i would experiment with plaster, expanding foam and wax. I felt that my work branched away from plaster as i wanted to create a form out of the material and plaster was not strong enough. I felt that with plaster i would have to much control over the shape and there would be no natural grown in the work. I instead experimented with wax, hot glue, expanding foam, fabric and a little bit with paint. 

I said that my work should be able to successfully communicate movement. This is something that i have aimed for which each of my experiments. I think some experiments have been more successful than others at communicating this. I think i learnt that i need to look more at the materials i was using in order to communicate fluid movement to people. I feel like my idea for my final major project does successfully communicate movement and people will look at it and see a sense of fluid. 

One thing that i have not stuck to throughout my project that i originality proposed i would do was to be inspired through nature. I said that my project will have a sense of the natural in it, look at storms and clouds and rivers for inspiration. Originally i did do this, i took inspiration from the movement of clouds. I thought that the cloud project was unsuccessful and so took another route with my project. I instead looked at materials for inspiration to installing a sense of movement. 

Saturday, 25 May 2013

Construction
I have started to build my final piece, i had originally planed to make a wide four by four foot sculpture that was flat but through the use of suspending it above peoples heads it would not appear flat. When  started to put it together i realised that doing anything larger than a foot was not possible, i could not manipulate it enough for my liking. I could not make the shapes the way i had planned, falling out of the net. I also realised how much foam the idea i had would take. This is when i thought about packing out the sculpture so the inside would be filled with paper or plastic balloons. I immediately rejected the idea of balloons due to the disaster of my last show at the church. I think i need to explore ways of filling out the sculpture so that i can make it to the size i want. 

I also reconsidered the shape of my sculpture quite quickly because of the way i was having to build it up. This is when i came up with a shape that i think is going to look more effective and have a greater impact on the audience. i want to create a shape that is roundish, it will then taper down in the centre, like a drop of water about to fall. I think this will give it greater form, it will allow the sculpture to be close to people at one point and yet expand out in another. I think i am going to make the structure hollow to achieve this and create it in parts and then combine them. I am really excited about the shape of my sculpture now. I am starting to be able to imagine it, it is uncanny and sublime and ephemeral and temporary, it brings together all the work i have been doing. It is now Saturday night, i am installing on Tuesday. This leaves me two days to get the main structure of the sculpture done. I am going to add the finishing touches on Tuesday and Wednesday, fill in any gaps and sort out how i am going to suspend it so it is even. 

One problem with this new shape to my work is the height. I had originally planned for it to hang only a meter from the beam, now i am not even sure how low it will hang. I do not however think it will matter to much to my work, i think it will add something if people have to duck below it and move around it. It would also mean people would be able to touch my work, something which was important to me at the start of the project. I will have to talk to Matias about this as it might be a health and safety thing with the height. I also need to looking to people helping me suspend it as i have not had ladder training and so am going to need someone who has to help me hand it from the bar. 

I forget to say where my final piece is going, i have been allotted a space along the central support beam. It runs the length on the corridor. I am at the part near the entrance. I am really pleased with where my sculpture is going, it will mean as people come in they will see it, it will allow them to pass underneath it as they walk through the exhibition.  


Feed back of final major critique
Here is the feedback i got, from Ann
. look more at the temporary and frozen motion
. Consider scale and how can interact with he public
. Made sculpture with more fluid movement more open
. Consider using ice
. Draw a block of melting ice

Feed back form Claire
. How important is lights to the original making of the work.
. How can lights be part of the final work
. How can i realise my final work use of layers or sheets

Feed back from Matias
. Like the suspension in your work
. Drawing of sculptures interesting, can these and photos be used to explore large scale versions?
. To what extent is beauty important to the work?
. Is this about the original project proposal or something else
. Create material experiments of the final idea

Reflection of critique
I felt that from the critique i learnt that my idea for the final piece does not successfully communicate the ideas i proposed originally. The hot glue experiment people liked but it did not communicate the ephemeral or a frozen moment in time. A few people questioned if this mattered if i could not change my ideas but i was really excited at making a sculpture that captures movement. A ephemeral sculpture is like a oxymoron, as sculpture are known for being permanent, large un-moving monuments. When i talk about past practical process people like the expanding foam experiment, they thought it captured movement in a more successful way than the hot glue experiment.

I also think that i did not successfully show what my work is about. I want to combine materials, i enjoy finding out how they will react with each other. I like the fact that materials can be dependent on each other and work together. My work looks at materials in their natural form, they don't distort the materials and cover them up. I like to experiment with things that are not common processes, expanding foam, used for installation, i think it is interesting display this when it is usually hidden between walls.

Reflecting back on what Ann said, i do think i need to look back at scale. I have always wanted to make my work to a large scale, it has been my ambition to make my work larger so that it awes the viewer. I want my audience to be over whelmed by the work so that it becomes something that becomes distorted and looks more surreal. when something is either really small or large it changes the work, it makes people take note as it is not normal. I want my work to communicate the uncanny and i think this can be supported thought the size of my work. When things become huge it distorts them and makes them less recognisable. I think i want the audience to interact a bit with my work. I feel like my work is tactile and thought this i want people to experience it. It really annoys me in a gallery when you can not touch the work so i want mine to be accessible, it dose not matter to me if it gets damaged that is just part of the art, its a temporary piece that is effect by whats around it. I agree with Ann that i need to make my sculptures more open, more fluid like. I am going to be using lots of foam to achieve this so that it is spilling out of every opening. I want it to look like it has frozen in the mist of falling. I will not be making anything with ice, i want to communicate the temporary thought a un temporary sculpture. I want to try and freeze a moment forever and i feel that ice will not communicate this, however it would communicate the ephemeral very well. 

Looking at what Claire said, i think lights are no longer important to my work. I experimented with them a bit in the beginning but now feel that they are not important. I liked exploring how lights could effect the look of the work, but not feel that i want my work to be about materials, to experiment with combinations of materials. I think i need to take note of what Claire is saying about how can i relies my finial piece  I am not very good at making my larger ideas come to life. I think i need to look in to ways of building up my work so that it is done in layers. I think this way my work can achieve the scale i desire while keeping the interesting detail and form. I think i need to look at artist like Eva Hesse who builds up her work as inspiration. 

Matias said that he liked the suspension in my work, i think suspension is important to my art as it helps communicate my idea of the frozen moment better.Also i like how it changes the view of the audience  by hanging something above eye level it forces people to look up and engage more in the work. Matias asked to what extent is beauty important in my work, i have been thinking about this and have concluded that i don't set out to make the work beautiful i just let the materials make their own forms. I think it is nice that people do find beauty in my work and that it is interesting as i do not set out to make it so. I think this could link to my theme of the uncanny, something unintended through materials, something beautiful and grotesque at the same time. I did look at the sublime at the beginning of my project, i think that maybe this has influence my work and that i do subconsciously set out to make my work have some aspect of beauty. I think my project proposal has changed to a degree, it is no longer directly about nature, i am not looking at elements and natural occurrences anymore. Although i do like that my work has a natural aspect to it the way that it looks like it is growing or changing as if alive. The artist that i thought would be a direct link in my work also changed, i moved on to material artist, people who experiment with different mediums more. I did follow Matias's advice and i have developed more material experiments to help me realise my final piece, i think this let me down in my last assessment as i did not look at how to build my work enough i just expected everything to come together like i imagined. 


New idea
Through the critique and talking to my tutors i have realised that my current final major project proposal is not right. It does not communicate what i set out to. I needed to look back at my other experiments and see what was most successful as communicate the ephemeral  engaging the viewer, freezing time. I talked to my friends and they agreed that the expanding foam had a sense of movement to it just through the use of combining the netting and the foam. It looked like it could continue to grow and expand, to move and flow. The foam in a sense froze, it set while expanding so it had these tendrils that hung down giving the feeling that they could fall at any moment. 

The new idea is to use nets again and foam, but on a larger scale, a mass of nets that combine to create a whole. I want to have a large sculpture that people can stand under and be engulfed by the size. That can feel like it is about to fall on people, and cover them. A mass of movement that looks like it is frozen in the mist of change. 


My presentation for my final major project critique
Work book check with matias
.I need to link to between my practcal evaluationa and how it realtes to my idea
.Evaluate the pop up show in more depth and how it relates to my proposal
.Repond to the tutorial sheets
.My annotataion need to continually refwer to my project proposal and on going concepts
.In my drawing book i need more practical processes
.I need more discussion of the nature and definition of sculpture as well as my response in terms of progress
.To use more of a wide range of artist
.Have more response and discussion of theory and my ideas
.Plan my final peice
.Link the practical skills to my ideas and plan how to transplate this in to a final peice
.Keep refering to my ideas when annotating
.Use drawing, mark making and photography to explor ways of presentaion, also discus audiance

New action plan
. Look in to what sculture is to other people
. what do i think sculpture is
. how has my views on what sculpture is changed through out this project
. Look as non-sculpture artists, artist who experiment with different materials to me, artists who display their work diffrently to mine.
. Look in to the theory of the uncanny
. Look at artist who explor the uncanny
. How is my work uncanny
. Plan my final peice
. Explore a wider range of drawing methods
. Talk about my intended audiance









Experimenting with expanding foam and netting
I wanted to experiment more with the expanding foam and how when another material when combined with it and gravity can change and manipulate the way it expands and grows. I brought three different types of netting, fish tank netting with only very small square holes, tomato netting and garden floor mesh. I did an experimenter with all three testing to see with was more effective, the tomato netting did not work at all, the gaps were to big and the foam just fell straight through, the tighter the weave in the netting the better the experiment worked out. I liked the fish tank netting at the gaps were square shaped and a cool pattern expanded out.



Development of hot glue experiment
I have been looking at ways of building up my work, i have been using larger sheets of glass and a looser way of drawing with the glue gun. I thought that if i included more gaps and made it more fragile it would look more temporary as it could be effected by the elements more. I have also had to looks at ways of connecting it, i brought a different brand of glue and it is a lot stronger so it melted to the glass so that i could not remove it. To over come this problem i thought about greasing it, i brought a spray oil that i applied to the glass before the hot glue. This made it easier to remove it. I have also been thinking about scale, i want it to be a large human size blanket, one that can cover someone. I am not sure yet if it will be more effective as a standard blanket size or a larger throw. I also need to consider the time it takes to make, at the moment it is taking 3 hours per glass panel. The panel it only one by one foot. At this rate it is going to take me a long time to build it up. I need to think very carefully about time management with this project, i need to make sure that i have enough time to build the sculpture so that i can then experiment with ways of displaying it that are most effective. 

Looking back at my original project proposal i think that the use of clear hot glue dose communicate the frozen, it loos like melting ice falling down. I am not sure that it is as effective at communicating rain, it does not loo like droplets rolling down a window. I need to think carefully about how i can over some this problem. I also am worried that it does not communicate or reflect on the notion of the uncanny. I was really interested with he notion of the uncanny at the start of the project, i felt like it echoed my work. I wanted my work to look at materials and ways of using them in a way that made them unfamiliar. I think in a way using hot glue as a medium is different as it is usually used to go between materials, it is not usually meant to be seen. I think if i used the hot glue in a more dripping, falling way it would be more successful at showing movement.  

Ways of presenting hot glue experiment
I have been thinking about ways to present my final piece. The glue is like a material but i think it is important in the way i display it so that it communicates the ephemeral in a successful way. Suspension has been a  constant theme through out my work, it shows falling and movement in my opinion. I thought about using fishing wire to suspend it at different angles so it looked like the sculpture its self was falling. I did not think at the scale i wanted that this would be effective. I had a talk to Ann today, she helped me think of different ways to display my work. Ann also made me think of ways of including the audience  I could have the work displayed so that people had to walk through it. 

My latest idea is to hang the glue so that it creates in a sense curtains. People could part them and walk through them so that they got involved int the art. I have always like my work to be tactile, something that people will want to touch but it would be new to explore the audience archly participating in the art. I think that thought the use of people touching it and moving it, it will become damaged and tear, it might fall altogether. i think this would be really interesting, it would mean the work is always changing. It would show the temporary as the art in it self would be temporary. I am not sure if this is what i want to do completely as i think it is a bit different to what i original proposed. I wanted to immortalise throughout a sculptural way the temporary. If i do make this idea it would mean my sculpture is not forever, it would be more performance that sculpture in my opinion. 


I also considered just draping it from a central point, maybe 
nailing parts to the floor to give it a more defined shape. I am not sure if this is to simple it would mean the sculpture is just hung there, not growing out or flowing. I need to think about if this will communicate the ephemeral and temporary of just hang there like a towel. 




Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Development of expanding foam
I feel like the foam experiment i did earlier was not as effective at communicate the ephemeral as i had hoped. After looking at Katie Wallbanks i think i am going to look at allowing gravity to influence the shapes created in the expanding foam. I found some packing paper, it has lots of holes in it, i thought it would be interesting to see if the expanding foam would seep through the holes and create interesting shapes. I want my work to have more place on the foam than in Katie Wallbanks work, i want it to feel like the foam grew so much that it exploded out and became frozen in that moment. I felt like with Wallbanks work the foam was very minimalistic and did not react with the netting at much as i would of liked. I want my materials to react with each other, become dependent, so that it does not look like i have put something in to something else but combined them.

I made a bag shape with the packing paper and then squirted the foam inside of it. I hung it up and let the foam do its thing. When i came back i was really pleased with the result. The foam had expanded out of the paper create beautifully dripping shapes. I felt like it captured the ephemeral, the temporary beautifully as it looked like it was about to fall on the floor and that it was still growing.

In my project proposal i said that i wanted to explore the ephemeral, i think with he expanding foam i have explored the temporary as the foam changes, it becomes something else. The expanding foam as a ,material its self captures a moment in time, it freezes gravity. I wanted my work to successfully communicate movement to people, when i have shown it to my friends and family that said it looked like something that grew and moved. I think by these comments it does communicate movement, it shows change. I also proposed in my proposal that my work would have a sense of the natural in it. I think as it looks like a living thing that has grown and expanded it does have a natural element of it. It becomes something alive.





Above it a Photo of my expanding foam experiment, i like the way there is a sense of escape. The shapes that are created by the foam being pushed through the paper are individual and have a sense of beauty to them. I also like the way the paper and foam have reacted to each other, they are depended on each other. It is only through a combination of the two materials that the shapes and outcome are possible.




Monday, 13 May 2013

Work book check
I need to be more reflective and not descriptive in my work, i think i should go back through all my old post about my work and update them so that i critically analyse them in more detail. Also Clair said it would be helpfully to my work if where i have taken direct influence from artist i put photos of my work next to them so that i can compair them and analyse them together. Clair thinks that this will help my talk about my work better and analyse it better. I also talked about a lot of my theories and views on art i need to look over how and why i produce work. I need to look in to transformation and illusion of materials, questioning the nature of what i am using and why. Is my work tactile or ritualistic, do i want it to engage the audience to interact. Is it important to my work how i make it, look in to methods and control, is there a tension between control and letting go. is the tactility of my work and the fact that i want to engage people an underlying philosophy. Look in to Karla Black in reference to this. Investigate further methods of making which could become fundamental to my practice. Do i want to bring life to my sculptures by freezing moments or having them oozing or changing. Look at Fischli and Weiss for the use of illusion thought their materials, also Damian ortega who talks a lot about moments in time. Why do you like the materials you use for example, expanding foam, ts not usually sen, its a gap filler. Do i use materials that support each other, why do i like to combine materials and not have them on their own is this important. Talk about colour, do i want to be true to materials, why , talk about sculptural concerns of artists in reference to colour, artist like Craigg, Ciro and Deacon. The expanding foam is a amorphous foam, do i like this research into what this is. Discuss abstraction, not knowing what things are going to look like, how they will result. Do i like to communicate mystery and curiosity through my work, why, are they now main concerns. Also talk about your working environment and if this impacts your work.