ARTWORK(sculpture) Faith

This artwork was displayed at the "Im talking to you" exhibition at the 'lone goat gallery' Byron Bay and at the Murwillumbah Civic Center

Photo from the Lone Goat Gallery, Byron Bay

on display at the Murwillumbah Civic center

Mustard tree

Hand written text, book, Mixed metals

Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Faith without action is incomplete, it is through acts of faith , whether seen or unseen that give it life.

Tristan Griffin , 2014

Project outline

Project 2

Please read carefully the Student Assessment Guides, which outline the requirements to successfully Realise a Body of work.

During Semester 2 , 2014 you are required to produce and present a body of work. This body of work can have an overarching concept, which would be inclusive of all your studio areas whilst not excluding the unique qualities of each discipline. Or in turn can be related to the Drawing unit alone.

Project 2 will consist of a series of works determined by youself in proposal for self-driven project

my concept

• “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead”

What is the artwork about : dialogue of the human body

encounter : living as a christian

revelation/experience: prayer positions , time spent at church functions

Scriptual connection/importance ; christians actions towards others,

the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control  (Galatians 5:22-23) The “actions” that glorify our Father in heaven are those that bear much fruit (John 15:8).

http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-behavior.html

This body of works main focus is to lay the foundations towards further bodies of work.

As a Continuation of the experimentation of black and white pastels, I intend on exploring the religious figurative dialogue of the human form. This will be explored in colaboration with sculptural exploration and provide the groundwork for future bodies of work. This project will be explored through the full figure and the positioning of hands, which caries the weight of religious and spiritual meaning. The most famous of these being the crucifiction of christ.

The use of a monocromatic palet implies a timelessness of the human condition. Once color is introcuced , the choices of color determine the period that the works are set in.

grab factor/interactive component

detail , realism

conceptual

looking at the importance of the position of your body, being consious of your body and its surroundings as well as its effects on others

technical/materiality

pastels – they are an ephermeral material which reflects the fragility of the human condition and our own mortality

This body of works main focus is to lay the foundations towards further bodies of work.

As a Continuation of the experimentation of silhouette forms, I intend on exploring the religious figurative dialogue of the human form. This will be explored in colaboration with sculptural exploration of presenting 2D artworks and provide the groundwork for future bodies of work. This project will be explored through the full human figure , which caries the weight of religious and spiritual meaning.

my execution

material/media: paper, book, wire, aluminium

techniques: metal cutting, book drilling, wire binding, paper mache

scale: H40cm x W80cm x D40cm

installation: plinth mounted

1. What research did you engage with ? Artist contemporary or traditional

what did I look at when brainstorming

research into:

• what are acts of faith and how can they be visually represented with the human form
• displaying of artworks in a non traditional method
• Jesus...parable of the mustard seed
• making wire trees

image

• leaf carving
• mustard tree and detail of mustard tree leaf
• Gem trees
• positioning of the human figure relating to christianity

artist

• michael murphy – multi layered scultures , images that come together to form a cross but cast politically charged shadows
• David Noonan – artist that works with life size cutouts of the human form, printed on board
• Rob mulholland – silhouette mirrored human forms

3. Discuss the planning of your project , including experimentation , technique selection, overcoming technical problems and determining limitations and constraints ( Refer to your journal)

experimentation, technique selection , why ?

Since the focus of this project was in the display of images I started out by playing with the placement of images create a dialogue. First I started by placing a series of 6 hand images in the form of a cross, then expanded that to be a three dimensional form with 20 images. I played with creating a human figure made out of smaller human forms. The thought process for me is , when does a series of images become one image. If you display 10 photos in a frame, are they one image because they are attached to the same armature ie frame. This experimentation led to me chosing to explore images on leaves which are attached to a tree

Marquette

• drilling three screws into a piece of timber
• binding wire around 10times which = 10 branches and 20 roots
• twist the wire where nessesary to create the tree trunk, branches and roots
• attachs the roots to an object, often a rock or some kind of base

metal cutting experiments

• cutting of a can
• flattening the natural curve of the metal from the can
• transfering the image onto the can surface (carbon paper)
• cutting of the can with sizzors and utility knife
• embosing the surface with a nail punch on a soft surface (gym mat)
• working out which way the figures on the leaves are positioned either towards the stem or away

final book techniques

• drilling screws into the top(x5) and bottom(x3) of the book, leaving 3 protruding on the top to use as anchor points for the roots of the tree.
• Holes drilled for the roots of the book to feed into
• spray paint (matt white) book surface, 2 coats

final tree techniques

• drill 3 screw into a length of timber, approx 80cm
• bind wire 21 times around the screws, this will make the branches and roots
• twisted the wires to the form of the tree that I wanted. (black mustard tree)
• cut the ends of the root wires, creating 42 roots which were then attached to the book base
• the ends of the branches were twisted and a loop left at the end to attach the leaves to
• once the leaves and book were attached, the paper mache(with bible book titles) were bound around the wires, this was done loosly to increase texture so that the book and leaves were separate from the trunk of the tree.

final leaf techniques

• use template of leaf and digitally manipulate a silhouette into the leaf image
• print out leaf image
• cut top and bottom of can with knife until 2cm is left, then cut this with sissors
• flatten out cut piece of can
• transfer image onto the cut can by using a stylus and carbon paper
• cut out silhouette with utility knife
• cut out leaf with sissors
• emboss leaf with back of nail punch on a soft surface
• spray leaf with matt spray paint
• attach leaf to tree by binding wire tightly around then end and bondcreting paper

technical problems limitations and constraints

Due to hand injury and the difficulty in cutting the aluminium cutting the 21 leaves was time consuming as I was only able to cut a maximum of 3 a day. The way I resolved this was after a conversation with a personal trainer friend, he suggested that I treated doing it like a workout, take a few very short rest breaks 2-5mins between the cutting of each leave and to carb load with fruit every 30mins. I discovered that I was able to complete the last 10 in one session by doing this without injury.

An unresolved problem with this artwork was with the spray paint used on the surface of the book. The paint never dried properly leaving finger prints and water marking. To resolve this in a future work when using spray paint on surfaces, priming the surface with a primer spray paint will aviod this problem.

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

My works are essentially self portraits, so when I make discisions about scale, numbers, color, words etc I instantly think “does this say something about me”

number of leaves

number as very important in the support of concept, for this work I chose to create 21 leaves. It is said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, or 21 days to create a new one, this is in relation to the creation of neurological pathways in the brain. So when discussing the need to acts of faith this relates well in talking about the creation and maintance of positive habits.

Form

Mustard tree

I chose to represent faith with the mustard tree due to inspiration from the gospel, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, then your faith is great indeed. The mustard tree is a weed, once it takes root it is very difficult to get rid of .

Leaves

I could have represented a tree without leaves, it would have been dead, which is the outcome of not outworking faith. The leaves are carved with acts of faith to strengthen this concept.

Book

as nourishment, faith needs knowledge. Wisdom is the knowledge outworked. But again without outworking of faith you can have all the nourishment you want and still not have any life in your faith.

Tree trunk

I chose to bind the titles of the bible around the branches, to describe what it is that feeds the outworking of actions. And helps to explain what the book below is, without needing to litterally use a bible.

Scale

I dont consider my faith being a fully grown tree, im messy and make many mistakes. I have a LONG way to go in growing in my faith, but at least my foundation has been laid. So I chose to represent my faith with a sapling.

display

I am chosing to display the tree at waist height to enhance the humble nature of the tree and enable people to properly see the images carved into the leaves.

6. How could you further develop your techniques in relation to you professional practice ? How might you build upon your ideas towards future work ?

This project has provided me with an image database of the human figure which covers most aspect of representing christianity. It will greatly inform future bodies of work and my own exploration of the human condition.