This artwork was displayed at the Group Exhibition at Murwillumbah TAFE , 2013
- How does your sculpture project address Project 2: Connect?
Project outline
This project requries you to explore
a relationship in which you feel a deep sense of connection .
Connecting with others is part of fabric of the human condition and
can be explored in many different ways.
Materials: will be appropriate to the
relationship and should speak about the level of intimacy
Scale: Small and intimate;
specifics to be discussed with you teacher
Techniques: project must incorporate
insertions in some fashion
Installation: wall work or suspension
my concept
This piece is about my relationship
with my partner the holy spirit is the center of our relationship
our bond is our faith.
close relationships are an important
part of existance ... we form bonds etc etc etc
vital for a healthy christian
relationship to have christ as its central focus
we are connected on many levels but
primarily our spiritual connection and our shared beliefs are what
bind us together strongly . Marija and i , our marriage .. and our
union with the holy spirit has inspired this work. We are transparent
... and the light is the holy spirit
But from the beginning of creation,
`God made them male and female.'
`For this reason a man shall leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one
flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined
together, let no man put asunder."
Gospel of St. Mark 10:6-9
A christian relationship which has
Christ as its center is vital, a strong/longlasting relationship
should be built on faith. Through sculpture the intention is to
explore this spiritual connection.
my execution
I made the body casts of my wife and I
after our marriage and honey moon . The entire process was very
intimate, I cast myself first with marija helping cast my head. Then
I made the cast of marija.
The figures were then cut,shaped and
joined together.
material/media: clear packing tape
techniques: casting
scale: 2 life size human figures
installation/format: suspended ,
vertical
To make the casts I layed down a layer
of tape , sticky side up , then two layers down sticky side down. The
next step was to cut the casts off . The casts were made by body part
separately and later joined.
9 Parts per figure , parts were:
Head , Left arm,Right arm,torso,
shoulders and neck , left leg , right leg , left foot , right foot
- What research did you engage with ? Artist contemporary or traditional
what did I look at when
brainstorming/research focus
Brainstorming started with looking at
the types of relationships I have with people , past and present as
well as positive and negative ones. This was informed by my artist
research. Once I had decided to explore the relationship with my wife
I looked at the different aspects of our relationship. As I was
getting married at the time I chose to explore the importance of a
traditional christian relationship and marriage.
I looked into a lot of scriptures and
websites around this as well as talking about it with my pastors and
church leaders.
image
image research was based primarily
around figure positioning
I found that the “deeper” the
embrace the stronger the visual appeal had to me.
artist
artists I looked at were
Louise Bourgeois -
Bill Viola – video artist
George Segak
Duane Hanson
Ron Mueck – hyper realist , scale
Patricia Piccinini- hyper realist ,
genetics
John De Andrea – hyper realist
Mark Jenkins and Antony Gormleys body
casting techniques influenced this project the most
Mark Jenkins uses the casting packing
tape techniques that I have experimented with(see journal)
Antony Gormley also uses body casting ,
and I was fortunate enough to watch a detailed video which he
underwent and narated his body casting process.
Antony Gormleys abstracted work “joy
and knowledge” and his figurative exploration of the same concept ,
I could see that with the same materials and the same concept just
how different the execution could be.
3. Discuss the planning of your
project , including experimentation , technique selection, overcoming
technical problems and determining limitations and constraints (
Refer to your journal)
experimentation and technique selection
, why ?
My technique selection was inspired by
Mark Jenkins , an american sculptor
winnie the poo marquette
technical problems
upscaling the casting technique didnt
go well , on a small scale the tape casts are structurally sound ,
but on a larger scale they collapse under their own weight and
require far more layers for strength.
had difficulty making marija's body
cast , her head was never cast so I had to faux it.
structurally there were many
issues in this project,
once the casts were made I had to chose
a pose for them and figure out a way of constructing this.
Initially I basically used a stick to
construct them around . Over night the figures legs buckled
and broke , the figures slumped and fell appart.
I re-enforced the lower halves as they
are weight baring
I realised that they would never stand
on their own and suspension was needed to construct and display them.
I used a metal hook which could be
placed almost anywhere (designed for verandas to hang plants )
the figures were then constructed and
bound
limitations and constraints
Not being able to use my
right(dominant) hand at all for much of the term was problematic. I
found it was dangerous to use power tools , I wasnt able to make
precise cuts afterwards leaving feathered edges.Hold things stably in
my hands. Lifting was difficult. I wasnt able to get the fine detail
that I was attempting to achieve as my motor skills arent as refined
in my left hand.
It all added to greatly increasing my
production time and it is amazing that I was able to complete these
at all . Thankfully I am reasonably ambidextrous so it wasnt a total
disaster.
4. What aesthetic decisions did you
make? Eg working with particular equipment to achieve particular
effects, establishing a key , determining a palette and deciding upon
a format and a scale
display
clear plastic tape / spirituality
- the materiality strengthens concept
- tape is to join and bond
- transparency , how we have been open and honest , a transperent relationship
- trancparent = spirituality
choice of figure pose
- its how marija and I often hug
- I wanted an embrace that wasnt overtly sexual in nature but more than just a friendly hug
choice of suspension
- originally accidental as it was part of the construction process
- the gentle sway it had during construction
- its like some spiritual dance
- I am really draw to this visual , otherworldly , higher plane of existance
scale
the project brief outline small and
intimate , I discussed this with cath , what small and intimate meant
. Ie a wedding could be refered to as small and intimate , even tho
when compared to a coin , it would be enormous.
We decided that making the figures life
size would best convey my concept , as smaller or larger would change
the meaning , just as Ron Meuck's works do with his alter scales
6. How could you further develop
your techniques in relation to you professional practice ? How might
you build upon your ideas towards future work ?
I have extended this project into
painting by exploring relationships with people from my past and
present which have greatly influenced the development of my identity.
I intend on experimenting further with casting and body molds as well
as working with the human figure
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