This week,I started to look over some of the found objects that i had found and how i could display and put them together.I also looked at how some of the found objects relayed with others and how they could be combined.
The lightbulb was half filled with water that never seemed to come out.I felt like finding this object was a breakthrough moment (even if it was later on in the term as it gave the project the dystophian feel I had been hoping for but for some reason I had found myself lost without realising it using materials that only suggested a medevil era such as steel,rusted objects and natural objects.This has been a complete learning curb for me and has taught me to consider the use or materials in regaurds to the narrative of the story/project more in the future.I liked the way in which the objects fitted togetherCurious unknown artifactsI wanted to attach this object so that it would stand but due to the rust i wouldn’t be able to weld in,I tried superglue and the rust just peeled off.I realised I have a bit of an obsession not only with this auburn colour which may be why I am so obssesed with anything rusty.Twine became the only option for attaching the two items together
The Blood robots
After finding the lightbulb I felt that this helped draw in the dystophian influence and it also made me think of an Angler fish ,I decided what would happen if I mixed this with a robot? The edwards sciccor hands syle blades are hollow and draw the blood from people which in turn fuels the light bulb and also fuels the light within the town.
The mouth was also inspired by the Angler fish.
The blades were inspired by Edward Scissorhands.
Giant bomb inspired the tank in the stomach that fills with blood.
The making of the flag pole
To the right are two samples of the twist and a diagram showing me when i would need to twist.I twisted the wrong way at one point.OOPS! But we made it equal by twisting it the same way at both ends.Eyelets for the flagpole were forged and then welded on at both sides.Flag eyelets were a nightmare to keep in the material.But aslong as it attached I didn’t mind too muchMeasurements were very important to makesure the handle was at arm height and the eyelets attached to the flagpole were the right distance for the flag.The flag measured 302cm in total so quite a distance!The handle was brushed with a gold brush a technique I have used throughout.I liked the uredescent glow the handle had.
Something I should of done prior to making the flagpole was measure inside my car as the flagpole proved to be too long for it,so I had to take it back to the workshop and remove a good 20cm.The technician suggested making an extension so that it could still resume to it’s original height.I did this by welding a bigger squarer pieces of metal to a smaller piece enabling the flagpole to just slip inside of it.Altho this was a great idea at the time it just seemed to make the flag pole to ‘top heavy’ and removing the extension from the bottom of the flag pole made it less so.It was also really difficult to get the right kind of soil for it to stand in.The soil was either to hard or too soft.It managed alot better with the harder soil altho it took a while to pitch it into the ground.
Flagpole extension.Bottom Half slides onto the rest of the flag pole and acts as an extension (it also meant the flagpole could fit into the car)
A slow motion edit of the flag up Law hill.The wind was super strong that day and the flag pole had to be held up towards the end and the flag started to tear out of the eyehole it was that strong so I had to hold the flag pole and the flag after a while.
This shot I felt was particulary powerful due to the way it caught the sun right in the middle of the eye symbol.I choose Balgay park to film this part in as I had allready scouted out this particular area last time I was there and noticed that the lighting was amazing at that time of day and how it made the leaves look red and how eerie the trees looked.I only edited the warmth slightly in this shot along witht he contrast as the sun was doing most of it for me.Sadly tho due to how loose the earth was and the fact it was on a hill I wasn’t able to get the flagpole to free stand.
Different edit where by I enhanced the blue of the sky and the warmth of the flag more so.I felt like doing this gave the sky much more of a dystophian/outer worldly feel.
I decided to overlay the Red lady with the movement of the flag as I was interested in how the material of the flag would move with the cloth of the hood.I also wanted the symbol on the flag to tie in with her torment and torture.I have just kept the orginal sound in for this video as there seems to be a scream in the background without it even being purposeful.Altho I have wanted the video’s to be soundless I may experiment with some with sound too.
This edit uses a slightly warmer tone and did’t turn out quite as condensed as the first one (I’m still trying to work out what I did differently it may be due to how I exported it).All in all I’m really pleased with how both of these have turned out and I think is amongst my most sucessful piece so far.
Just lately I have been watching the Andy Warhol diaries on Netflix.What I found particulary interesting from this doccumentary is that few people really knew Warhol as his personality was part of an act and a persona and most of all part of his art.I liked the fact that this doccumentry wasn’t another run of the mill doccumentry about his work but rather a deeper and darker look into Warhol himself via his diary entries.It made me think about ‘The Red Lady’ and how much of a cross over there is between my personality and hers.I think we certainly share the same strength of character.
This week was alot about experimenting,trialing different ideas and seeing what worked and what didn’t.I also felt like it was quite a lsow week and I have been struggling with not really having anyone to bounce ideas off of in the studio.
I did however,find that it really helped having my one to one with one of the tutors this week.She really helped clear my head in regards to the whole performance/sculpture balance.She recomended that i do keept the performance aspect even if it is just the short films and maybe have a performance opening night of the exhibition then leave all the things i have made out and some films running.We talked over the idea of this dystophian world and the importance of the character having a backstory.Prehaps her character was invented by men in order to stop there wifes from gossiping and to keep them under control and these stories were told to young girls so that they would behave.We also talked about leaving bound items in the woods and punlic places etc.
We also discussed the myth of the red lady in the modern day world.What if she was like Bloody Mary or slender man?What if parts of her tale were true and the rest got lost in myth and then resurfaced as an internet myth?
Slender man was created on a ‘something awful’ online forum for a 2009 photoshop parnormal image contest.The myths were then expanded by fan fiction.The myth of ‘slender man’ encouraged two 12 year olds to lore their friend into the woods and stab her 19 times.Which infact seems more sinister then the myth itself.
Bloody Mary was used in the olden days by women in order to see their future husband in the mirror.They would either day it 3 or thirten times whilst holding a candle in a mirror and soemtimes when walking backwards upstairs.It is said you would either see the face of your future husband or they may see a skull or the face of the grim reeper instead.It is said that staring in the mirror for long spells in darkness actually causes hallucinations.
After watching ‘The First Monday in May’ on Netflix I was inspired by some of the faces cages on the catwork and the whole concept of fashion and art merging.So i drew up a design for a medevil style headpiece almost on par with a ‘scold’s bridel’ but without the mouthpiece as I wanted to show that altho she was free from her husband’s control she was still imprisoned within her own mind consistantly looking for revenge.
An original ‘Scolds bridle’Image drew whilst watching’the first monday in May’Using imagery to story tale.The brown crumbled paper gave an aged feel and the plaited twine holding it up made it feel like a medevil posted or warning sign.Head cage made using sticks.Playing with imagery in regards to a head cage,Development stages of a maquette used to measure out for making it with metal and to understand design flaws
I was encouraged by the welding technician that before trying to make the headcage,to try and make it from cardboard first so i could then take it apart,Measure the strips and then make it with metal,it would also point out where there might be difficulties as he predictied that making this kind of structure may prove troublesome but in order to problem solve it was best to make the maquette first.
The cardboard proved to be too heavy so never held the shape well enough and started to fall inwards.For some reason I had forgotten that maquettes are supposed to be made with card.Using card wouldn’t have as much give and therefore would hold much more like metal.
The card proved to be much easier and more light weight in regards to holding it’s shape.The card to however reveal a problem area which was in the top right corner which didn’t attach very well.
Added some Ivy that i found to the design but I feel that the centre part of the structure doesn’t stand out as much with the ivy around it.I think once the headpiece it made that i would like to try weaving around itSome cardboard packaging which i felt related well to the woven straw and twine on regards to asthetics but not in regards to material.
An Artist that was suggested to me by my one to one tutor this week was a previous student called Morgan Black who’s work focuses primarily on gender and who’s degree show imagined a past different from the one we know. I find their illustrations interesting,altho personally I prefer to do my illustrations by hand.I also like the artefacts that they have made outside.
Sekai Machache was another artist whom was mentioned to me.I find her performance pieces and costumes particulary striking especially in the surroundings she has choosen which provide the perfect surroundings.The way the colours reflect in the water is particulary striking.
Monster Chetwynd work was mentioned as her crazy bat lady image relays in a similar way to the red lady image.Altho the crazy bat lady imade has been created by cut up seperate images then glued together.I do appreciate and like the surreal quality of this image tho.I have created images like this in the past so may be a good idea to try and do something similar again.
I’m baaaaaack!And damn it feels good,after a turbulent nearly a year of being homeless,working in Orkney untill I found my feet again I have deffinately come back very reformed and very ready/eager for this semester to begin.
Because I had spent so long ‘out of the game’ it was hard to know where to start.So what better place to start then my blog itself.Looking back on my most previous post I occured and onimous hooded character who never had a chance for the character or costume to develop (certainly not technically anyway so I decided to start there.
I got so excited to start using the workshops that I imediately drew up a plan to make the bone mask into a metal mask and started off by looking at the shapes within the mask and making it more abstract so that it would work more effectively in metal,I also love the process cycle (i think that’s what it’s called) and how and object can change when made using different materials.
Original Bone headpiece using a birds breast bone and skullOmninous character,headpiece could also be flipped.Could the same effect happen using metal?
I decided that the shape made by the breast bone would work more effectively if this shape was cut into the metal.I decided that it would all be made using sheet metal.
I talked over what the process would be with the welding technician,I wanted to individually weld together individual sheets of metal to make the headband to be in keeping with the asthetics of the original piece but we soon realised it would be much easier to just bend a piece of thin metal to the size of my head.(A very big measurement due to my alien sized head)
Used a bucket to bend the metal around then hand clamps to clap it into place before using a clamp to hold it into place and weld it/file down rough edges.drew out the headpiece shape onto sheet mentalUsed a plasma gun to cut the shape out.
I decided that i prefered to use the shape that had fallen out of the sheet of metal rather then the shape that was left in it.Instead,I decided to use this spare sheet of metal to practice using the spot welder on(a piece of machinery which i find genius).I ended up really liking this little demo piece and wishing I could use it for something!I think i will deffinately use a similar technique for a future process.
Once I was confident and happy using the spot welding machine I attempted to attach the copper welding rods to the metal.Via trial and era I realsied that it would be too difficult to use the original one rod that i was intent on using as i wouldn’t be able to successfuly sandwhich the metal plate on top as it wouldn’t balance properly so i instead decided to use three to help the plate on top balance out better.However,once I added the three copper roads altho i intitally thought it looked better once I put it together i felt like it looked worse and that i should of just left it how it was.
Overall i think it was a good first attempt and alot of problem solving helped develop the process and the finished piece in ways I hadn’t expected.
Drawn using the left handContinous linedouble penA couple of developmental pieces drawn using different techniques as part of a process cycle after the handband had been sculpted,I really love how this accentuates the change,
I started working on a short film for this character and also wondered how i could attempt to use her in my crit on Tuesday.I decided that it would be interesting to see how this character could effect other people.I once did a performance workshop where one of the participants simply sat infront of the audience and just stared at each individually individually.I actuall found it really intimadating and felt that this would work well with the darkness of this chracter who is meant to be a mysterious myth and ledgend.
After pulling off the paint from a paint lid i realised it would look pretty cool on the eyeIdea for short black and white movieVariation of styles drawing the characterEye has an egyptian eye feel to it.Need to try out make-up and headpiece.works in progress.
The idea I have for the film would be a black and white silent stop motion style film.The only noise would be the zzzaaaaapp of the teleporting shamans stick/wand that would transport her to different places in the woods.
This week I also decided to visit a couple of local exhibitions to help inspire me again and get the ball rolling a couple of these included the Bauhaus exhibition at the Cooper Gallery.I was super hungry during my visit to this exhibtion so I didn’t spend as much time there as I wished so will re-visit again prehaps later next week altho I’m rather embaressed after mistaking one of the booklets that belonged to the exhibition as a freebie and having to do the walk of shame today in order to give it back.The part of the exhibition that really caught my attention was the black and white video at the end which was a recording of art students talking about the huge ‘gap’ between what was being taught in schools and what was being taught at unversity.This still seems very relevant today,why has nothing changed?!?
I also visted the DCA’S Ray Yen Song and Tako Taal exhibition,my particular favourite being Ray Yen Songs as I loved the mix of media which intertwinned,as it was based on family mythology it made me think about ideas of how i could intertwinne different media’s for my current project aswell as the mythical element.
I loved the textural element of the gown and how it displayed the mysthical creatures faces on it and that the faces of the monster were on everything even the shoes!
I finished off this week by looking at medievil torture devices for the head as mentioned to me in my tutorial the headpiece was quite reminiscent of one of them.Which as i have allways been facinated by the darker side of history but i also love high fashion so why not mix the two together!I also thought that prehaps the headpiece could be part of the characters tale was she tortured and then in turn haunted the land?
Was she pacing the land forever looking to get revenge against thoose who scorned her?The silent movie could be reflective of her now having her voice taken away by the contraption due to tales of her gossiping etc.
I also felt that the head piece had a shamanic feel to it with the one that was made from bone and the one after that so looked at a couple of shamanic headpiece,I feel like it would be interesting to see how the style of some of them would look if created with metal.
I love how the bits with the ovals at both side look similar to that of a woman’s ovaries.
Not being able to see the eyes gives a further air of mystery but how would the character otherwise interact with the audience?
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