Semester 2 Week 2 (A Week of inductions)

30th Jan 202223rd Apr 2022 | harussell1

This week was a busy week,inductions and my very first face to face crit since coming back!

But first of all we’ll start off with the Blacksmithing induction.

My intial idea was to make a shaman’s staff but it turned out that that idea was a little too adventurous. First of all we took some industrial metal rods and cut them up,We then filed the sharp edges off ready for heating up in the machine (of which I have forgotten the name)The rod slid into the machine but wasn’t able to touch to sides of the coil it went into otherwise you may be given an electric shock so the teacher had made a stand to use so that you could easily slide the metal into the machine.

This machine was used to remove any sharp edges on the metal.The metal must be held at either a 45 degrees angle or straight against it so that it didn’t get caught and fly from your hands.

In order to achieve the tip the metal must be continously hit from a certain angle whilst the metal is rolled to make sure all angles are equal.I found this very difficult to achieve especially within the time limit of trying to do it before the metal cooled again.As you can see the angle is still slightly off but not too bad for a first try.The gold tip was created simply by using a metal brush with gold coated steel wire on it which then transfered onto the mental when brushed with it whilst still hot.

Altho the idea was initatlly to make a shaman’s staff I feel that it was important to get the technique right first before trying anything more adventurous plus I ended up making an interesting looking arrow/wand which really isn’t too bad at all!

So for my crit this week I decided to use a performance art technique which I had seen used in the past.I told the handful of people in my crit to sit on the floor and i had choosen a spot in which to put a chair with the symbol i had choosen for my character above it.I went and put on my head piece and retrieved the arrow whilst letting suspense grow.I had also painted the symbol on my eye and was wearing the red cloak.

The feedback was what I was hoping to achieve,so therefore i felt that the crit was sucessful.Some of the feedback was as follows; ‘I hated it,I felt as if I was loosing my nerve.’ (this was from the woman whom squirmed) haha.

‘Sitting on the floor felt like being in a position of weakness,I felt small and un-nerved’

‘The symbol had an egyptian feel and made you look almost like a Spynx’

‘Thou shall not pass’

‘Dystophian,handmaids tale’

‘Alien like’

‘Plague mask’

‘Make-up very sci-fi,should of disapered mid way through someone elses crit and came back with it on’

‘It went from a fanciful fairytale to scifi’

‘Was wondering if there was going to be a speach’

‘Noise brought you back into the room’

It was suggested that i could also of used the staff/wand/arrow to point at different people.

In the future I could do a performance piece within the uni where I jump out on people.

Piece was reminiscent of Marina Abramovic where she sits and stares individually at each person who ques to sit infront of her.

I felt that personally I got the reaction that i wanted from the audience but as the tutor said it would of been interesting to see if i could of held composure should people of not of had their masks on.Which made me wonder how the people I saw do it how they managed.What did they think of?

I think i do want to use the staff as part of the act in the future as I feel that this character should remain silent and reaction should be caused by her movement and eye contact.Part of her back story is that she was tortured for being a tale tale and not allowed to speak so she inserts her control using other methods.I allways remember growing up that when me and my friend had been up to mischief her mum wouldn’t even say anything she would just give us a look that was more scornful and terrifying then a telling could possibly ever be and that it the kind of power that i want this character to purvey.

I don’t know how confident i feel about staring at people within the uni.I suppose within an art school environment your pretty safe but it’s deffinately not something I would want to try in public.I feel that i am happy to perform in a space that has been organised to perform in and I am interested in making short films but that is it.Ofcourse the publics reaction is allways going to be more interesting but there is also nothing more unpredictable or volatile then the general public and having worked with them for many years I wouldn’t feel safe,I mean after all a member of the public held a handgun to Marina Abramovics head when he was given the opertunity so anything is possible.

Is there anything more powerful then a stare?The eyes are the windows to our souls after all.

Lazercutting and Lino printing

I found lazercutting alot more technical then I thought it would be.I really struggle with anything technical due to my dyspraxia.I have a short term memory because of this and because there are so many instructions with anything digital/technical i get lost really easily and have to keep asking the tutor to repeat themselves.I still really enjoyed the process especially how unpredictable the end image is.I felt that my image turned out closer to the original image then anyone elses did as there’s were alot more detailed then mine.The small dots made by the lazer gave it a real pop art feel.It was difficult to get the esact right amount of ink on the lino cut (i have in the past put too much) and then when i got the right amount i managed to get a flek of ink in the middle of the symbol.It’s also difficult to get the print straight on the paper.But practice makes perfect and prints are deffinately something I want to take further in my work so I am currently in the process of booking an induction with the main print workshop.

Sandcasting.

Sandcasting was such a long and complex process,again alot longer then I thought it would be.The technician advised me that the process would normally be done over a couple of days but due to the restrictions and class sizes it now has to be done in a day.

The biscuits were first glued to a board of sorts,had a special kind of sand with oil in it added then a cast was made of that before the boards were drilled together and the liquid bronze poured in.Before this could happen tho it had to reach a certain temparture. (this was checked regulary by using a probe)The liquid travelled down the funnels made in the sand down to where the biscuit casts were.

The biscuits casts were then sanded down to get rid of the rough edges before being sandblasted.They were then taken to be painted using a certain paint that needed to be applied by using the heat of a welding gun.I choose to go for emerald green and magenta/blue.The biscuits then had waxed applied and were polished to bring closer attention to detail.

And for my next trick..

This weekend I plan on making a black and white silent movie in the woods.It will involve the character pacing amongst the trees and disapearing from one area then re-appearing in the next.I also have an idea for the character screaming at the camera in a silent rage.I would like to experiment with different music and sound in the background.(Hopefully I can get some asistance from the i.t lab with this)I like the thought of white noise playing whilst she screams but these things don’t allways turn out quite as you expect.
This weekend I plan on making a black and white silent movie in the woods.It will involve the character pacing amongst the trees and disapearing from one area then re-appearing in the next.I also have an idea for the character screaming at the camera in a silent rage.I would like to experiment with different music and sound in the background.I like the thought of white noise playing whilst she screams but these things don’t allways turn out quite as you expect.

I have found myself becoming inspired by a mixture of different cultures,from witchcraft,to shamans to ancient egyptians to vikings!I think mainly because all these things have allways interested me.So it makes sense that i bring all these elements to my work.Oh and the more morbid the better.My Mum was allways worried about my obsession with The Return to Oz as a kid because I especially loved the part where the queen could choose a different head to wear from all the heads she had cut off and I guess my morbid frame of mind has continued ever since!

The aesthic,style and strength of a viking woman has allways been something to be admired..I want to bring parts of this into my character and the development.

I find the egyptian eye make up quite inspirational and also the power of the female queens.

I have also started to wonder if the warrior like/strongness of the character has become my alter ego.The strong part of me that has prehaps carried me throught the last few months and prehaps even the last few years.

Semester 2 Week one (the return)

22nd Jan 202223rd Apr 2022 | harussell1

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 skull

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.

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.

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 eye

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?

A shamnic headress made from bone prehaps?

Installation

9th Nov 2019 | harussell1

In this workshop we viewed many different artist installations in a presentation as inspiration for making our own.

We were asked to spend 10 mins in silence taking in the room we had been working in for the last week,making mental notes about the size,feeling we got from it,structure etc etc.

We were then split into two groups.Our group only consisted of four people in comparison to the other group which was much larger.

I found this task particulary difficult mostly because we had to work as a group and I felt that one half of the group did not take any ideas from myself and another person within the group So I didn’t feel that I had any influence on any of the ideas or that I could identify with any of the final outcomes.

I felt that the other groups ideas were alot more sucessful as they seemed to think on their feet where as our group spent more time thinking then making and would last min throw something together and hope for the best.

Image with the chairs and red board was meant to be about creating a safe space within such a cold clinical room and creating a barrier from the other installation yet inviting people to look at it also.

Other image was about reflecting the slant of the ceiling.

Resin Casts/Armatures/Final clay piece. Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

9th Nov 20194th Dec 2019 | harussell1

In this workshop we took elements of what worked in our sculptures and made it into casts.I had taken a series of close up photo’s of my sculptures and decided to focus on features such as vessels had made in the clay,the folds of the clay and the shape of the holes in one of my sculptures.I also decided to look at the form of one of my sculptures too which had a very femine form which i felt related to the vessel like shape and to combine these two shapes together.

I had to remind myself of how to create these shapes in order for them to have the desired effect in the resin.On the first piece i forgot to invert the folds in order to make them come out so did this on a second attempt.

I feel that the most simple cast using the vessel form and femine shape was the most effective and therefore I decided to make three armatures based on this shape using a mixture of chicken wire,hessian and thick plaster mix to give a more textured approach. I created a big piece and two smaller,one free standing and i cut the chicken wire at the bottom of the smaller piece and bent it and did the same with the larger piece altho this may not be the best approach due to the height and i proberly should of added more plaster to the bottom in hindsight.

A collection of everyones works together.I thought it was interesting to see everyones different techniques and pieces together.

Working in clay. Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

9th Nov 20194th Dec 2019 | harussell1

In this workshop we were introduced to a variety of techniques that can be used when sculpting clay.These techniques included hitting the clay with blocks of wood,punching it, and sculpting it with wire. We were reminded not to make the sculpture too ‘top heavy’ which is something I really struggled with and it seemed the more I tried not to the more it happened.The soloution I found to this was often to turn the sculpture onto it’s side.

As you can see from the images above each technique had a very different outcome.After our first initial technique of punching the clay we had to respond by drawing it and then make another piece.Continuing with the developmental loop.I think the two techniques I liked the most and found to be the most sucessful was using the sticks and the wire.

I found that there was a very relaxing meditive quality to working hands on with the clay and really getting involved with the medium.It was pretty unpredictable to work with but gave some interesting results.

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.

4th Nov 20199th Nov 2019 | harussell1

Today we went for a 15 min walk after watching a presentation about various sculpture artists over the centurys for inspiration. On the walk we were asked to make mental notes of words that related to our surroundings.

My first free formed sculpture.Can’t say I was best pleased with the way it turned out.As I felt that it lacked too much in the way of dimension especially when compared it to fellow classmates.

Once back in the studio we made small free formed paper sculptures based on these mental notes, and then worked within a developmental loop drawing from the sculpture then sculpting from the drawing using select items such as paper,paper straws,cardboard and wire.

Form is starting to come together more.But still doesn’t have enough of a 3D aspect to it.

To start with I really struggled to construct and think in a 3D format but once everybody talked about their work and i got to view other works I felt inspired and my work started to take on a more sculptural form. We were also allowed to refine one of our pieces after talking about it which really helped to see the strengths and weaknesses.We were told to makesure that our sculptures were viewable from every angle.

One challenge I particulary enjoyed was drawing the sculpture using charcoal then trying to fit the sculpture into the drawing.I felt that the composition I choose worked well due to the fact the straws lead your eye around the shape.

Experimenting with the positioning of the sculpture within the picture.https://drive.google.com/file/d/17aDbscJaRQuDwnSotQeUMXuIdJO63_mg/view?usp=sharing

Decided to simplify the shapes that could be found in the diamond structure within the last piece I made and make them into a mobile structure inspired by Alexander Calder’s work seen earlier in the day during the presentation. https://images.app.goo.gl/8rGMk5CYz1gaxLYj7

A video of the mobile in action:https://drive.google.com/file/d/17V6ispmWJtrOGgAPOYmWBrJPsBIIphHi/view?usp=sharing

Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

3rd Nov 20199th Nov 2019 | harussell1

Due to us spending next week at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop we were given an induction where we were introduced to all the diferent machines within the wood workshop.We were then asked to do practice pieces using these machines before being given several pieces of wood and asked to make a final piece using the equitment provided.

I felt quite aprehensive about using the machines as it’s not an environment that I am used to and there is alot of danger attached to using these machines should you loose focus or not follow the safety guidelines.Over the course of the afternoon tho I did start to feel slowly more confident.

Final piece.Decided to go for something very simple based on one of the shapes produced during my 2D work and hung as a final piece.The triangles used very thin wood and would be quite intricate to cut on the bandsaw so decided to use a table saw as a normal saw seemed to be too heavy and splintered the ends of the triangles.Forgot to sand the triangles which you can see by the rough edges.

We got to have a sneak peek at an exhibition currently taking place within the sculpture workshop and also work in progress which included a pair of (legally aquired) silver casted swans wings which could of been interpretted as angels wings.Also alot of bronze/silver casted items that looked like they belonged to a movie set such as a giant set of horns,gas mask,shoes.We were encouraged to talk to artists using the workshops to find out about the processes they are using in order to inform our own processes.