A reflection.....

As a reflection on my work this term I feel that my work has evolved as my object making has changed and moved to creating more thoughtful pieces which have required create input and nursing during the process compared to my last works using glass and hot gun which were more reliant on unconscious decisions. Furthermore the objects are more intriguing as they require deeper investigation not only from observing but also by touching and feeling the objects. 

The colourless objects also a challenge to the viewer to create your own ideas and relationships with the objects and pods when colour and familiarity are removed. This can be through interpreting  forms or properties of the materials used however I feel this allows the pieces to be more interesting as they evoke varied responses rather than a dictated meaning set by myself as the artist. 

I feel this has also helped me progress as an artist to give faith to object and process making as a art form and appreciate how straying from the literal to investigate the world through the non physical allowing deeper understand which is detached from the opinions of human significance. 

Pods.

These peculiar forms are a result of my experimentation and evolving thoughts and how they have progressed over the last year as I have focused on the mind and body. 

As I began my focus on art and science and questioning the human body I focused on the literal forms and physical attributes in the body; making body casts, sculpting organs and trying to recreate bodily tissues and cells. However through this and through a interest in questioning the mind I have become distanced from physical representation become more interested in that which we do not see and finding dead ends and limitations to what else there is to discover by focusing on literal aspects of the human body.

These 'pods' are sculptures which I have experimented with creating to question my own limits of understanding in the world around and my own capacity to move away from the need for structure. Stemming from a interest in ideas surrounding the Copernican revolution, as I intend to write about this for my 3rd year dissertation, the pods represent a questioning of space in which they float in and the space inside them.  

They are imperfect and hard to interpret however in contrast to the process based object making of my other pieces they provide a personal challenge to myself to reconsider how I might make art and what art is. As I have been hanging these in my studio space I have been questioned as to what they are and what they mean however to my understanding this is where realizations can be made about ones mind by how they may interpret abstract objects which is made harder when colour and familiar form is removed as our minds rely on preset connections to interpret the world around. 

The physcial attributes of the objects are delicate and fragile as the cling film can be easy crushed or torn whilst the wire frames offer a structure and frame for them to cling upon. 

Degrading....

To document the process of my objects changing over time and degrading these photographs shows how as the flowers have begun to die the nature of the objects have changed from the vibrant and beautiful objects to remains past life as the flowers die and degrade into the wax, peeling the wax away with them. By viewing the objects changing over time emotions towards them change. Soft and subtle tones of greens and yellows darken to browns and dark green demonstrating the affects of and influence of colour and it's ability to affect emotional responses. 

Inspiration: Veiled intentions

Having found this photography online labeled 'Vieled intentions' or 'Vedas by N.A Cope and D.E Arnold. I found in very inspiring and relevant to my work. Having researched this I found that they were inspired by the idea that 'A veil that covers, deforms, and when it reveals it does so only in part. A metaphor for knowledge, that expands certain values and contracts others.' This affect is interesting to themes I had began to explore offering a different perspective to what happens when you veil and mask objects thus transforming their meanings and values.

A further point I found very interesting about this subject is - "In "Vedas" the subject of knowledge is explored by Nicholas Alan Cope and Dustin Edward Arnold in the specific aspect of how the Copernican revolution provoked radical changes in thought, thanks to the book "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium". This again resounds to the previous research conducted into Darwinism and Freudism as further Copernican shocks to the value of humanity. 

Taking this into account I find these images very interesting and haunting and the human form because masked and unfamiliar as features which we use to differentiate and emotionally connect with are hidden, transforming the human form into a mere veiled object. Taking this affect further is the similar emphasis on the colourless to remove familiarity and warm to unnerving images which appear alien to the usual human existance. 

“We are not trapped by our thoughts. What we generally do, however, is create thoughts that trap us.” ― Joshua David Stone

Further experimentation has lead to testing trapping objects in wax. These again change the feeling of these small sculptures to allow the connotations of the objects to be questioned, furthermore rather than joining with the wax shell as the colourless pieces, these objects appear trapped and stuck however what this means to various viewers will differ. 

Personally I find these evoke a feeling of anxiety and being trapped as the wax wraps itself around the objects as they sink into and become stuck in the pool of wax at the base creating a sense of falling or sinking. The dullness of the light bulb which can no longer be illuminated and the rusting of the pots also creates a sense of loss and aging. 

Colourless Sculpture....

Having established a sculptural process by manipulating wax to form shapes and encapsulate objects as seen with my last flower sculpture, I have continued to progress with this technique but this time reverting back to an interest in the colourless. 

These are interesting as the boundary between the wax and the materials disappear leaving only texture and form to be examined forcing the eye and mind to investigate further to interpret these pieces. 

I am interested in the removal of colour and how this affects the interpretation and emotions which can be associated as we naturally use pre-existing structures to determine a emotional response to a object by responding to its colour as a first unconscious response. Furthermore this leads to a need to explore and question the concealed materials and the meaning of the forms of these objects to form an opinion. 

Images above: Plastic sheet in wax.

 Images above: Cotton wool in wax

 Images about: Netting in wax 

Images above: Plastic bin liner and wax  

 Images above:: Zip in wax.

"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity."- Edvard Munch

Having explored the idea of life and death and experimenting with object making I made this small sculpture using wax and flowers. The overall affect of this has given a delicate and fragile wax shell which degrades away from the flowers to reveal the top whilst encasing and trapping the bottom of the plant, similarly to Abigail Lane's dog sculpture which appears trapped and frozen in time. Whilst the direction and heaviness at the base of the sculpture create a sense of sinking and falling- like dying, as the flowers will too slowly die and degrade into the wax. 

Finding more inspiration...

A boy touches an ice sculpture of a polar bear as it melts to reveal a bronze skeleton in Copenhagen, Denmark, host city of the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, on December 8, 2009.

This connected to me inspiration for sculptural work to explore making objects which degrade to demonstrate life cycles. The sculptures use of contrast between the bronze skeleton and the pure white of the ice creates a ghostly appearance which is extremely powerful. 

Frank Cohen exhibition

In connection with the Charles Darwin exhibition I also went to the Frank Cohen exhibition which exhibited work by Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst, Charming Baker and others. A statement by the museum exhibition officer Adrian Plant stated that....

'“Charles Darwin is Shrewsbury’s most famous former resident and his influence can be felt throughout the historic collections. Each artwork in the Cohen exhibition in some way touches upon the connection between human beings and the animal world, and questions how much we can really know about history.”

With this in mind and after viewing Darwin's work and other artworks from historical painting collections I was able to view the work in the Frank Cohen exhibition from a different perspective than I usually would. 

Tracy Emin's I know I know is based on words said during an argument with her mother. As a controversial artist Emin's work I often find hard to engage with such as 'The bed', however when viewing I know I know I felt the piece was very emotionally powerful relating to the familiarity of the situation for most people and evokes memories and emotional responses. I also felt the use of language is extremely powerful as Jacques Lacan language structures the unconscious therefore Emin's use of language allows her work to directly translate to viewers. 

The simplicity of this piece and colourless nature I also found refreshing in comparison to some of her other works as it offers a sense of peace and release rather than a manic us of bright bold colours. 

All I want Can Only Be Accomplished By Ignoring What You Need - Charming Baker. 

The exhibition presented a set of four busts which call upon the concept of 'survival of the fittest' in which Darwin identified adaption, cooperation and communication as the specifies most likely to evolve and survive. 

The busts contrast the cold hard colorless human busts with the gold luxurious animal masks. This affect created a internal debate to my own interpretation whether I felt the animals were owning the humans due to the glorification and power of the animal faces in rich gold appearing strong over the soft bust sculptures however when considering the title of this piece I reconsidered my interpretation changed using the connotations associated with the animals to convey emotions. 

The title of All I want can only be accomplished by ignoring what you need seemed relate-able to how humans use horses as tools to be submissive and 'broken in' and used for racing not to be free and true to their nature. 

Untitled perspex dog- Abigail Lane

This piece is a cast of a stuffed dog waiting expectantly. Casting the dog in this states retains a sense of life and hope however the solid fixed position brings back to the realizing of death.  In relation to Darwin's work this piece is extremely relevant to his less known writing on the emotional intelligence of animals drawing upon his own attachment to his domestic dogs. This piece is another example of how the colourless and translucent can be used for sculpture.

The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. - Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin and Shrewsbury Museum. 

When considering what it is to be human we are greatly influenced by the discoveries of Charles Darwin's as a part of the Copernican revolutions (As described by Freud). Darwin's theories of evolution continually intrigue me and make me want to further question what I am myself as a animal which has evolved over thousands of years. This is something which is often forgot in modern society as we feel a sense of self importance and superiority over other life forms even though we are simply animals and are also motivated by unconscious instincts such as the need to mate. However what divides and defines the human life is the complexity of the brain which allows us feel our complex emotions like love to disguise these instincts.  

I recently visited Shrewsbury Museum to see a Charles Darwin exhibition. One particularly interesting part was a 'thinking path' by artist Shirley Chubb. Thinking path is a name given to Darwin's ritual daily grounds of his home in Kent where he wrote the Origin of species. The thinking path combines images from first hand research, film stills from of video documentation taken of the actual thinking path recorded on significant anniversaries of Darwins' birth and death, sections from Darwin's writings and other sites of direct significance to Darwin.   

The thinking path allows a insight into the life and work of Darwin and gain greater focused perspective on Darwin's interest in life and the world around him. Further more Chubb's way of exhibting the slide through curved glass offers a interesting experience and the organised presentation reflects Darwin's use of ritual. 

The exhibition also contained many interesting fossils and artifacts of which inspired me. Being given the chance to view past life forms in such a way arises great questions of morality and the inevitability of death as a part of life. 

Only Death.....

“Only Death,” Pablo Neruda

There are cemeteries that are lonely,

graves full of bones that do not make a sound,

the heart moving through a tunnel,

in it darkness, darkness, darkness,

like a shipwreck we die going into ourselves,

as though we were drowning inside our hearts,

as though we lived falling out of the skin into the soul.

This a experiment casting flowers in wax. By doing this I wanted to test the affect which could be created by casting tonal objects in the colorless wax to create contrasts like Christina Bothwell's work. 

I chose to use flowers to explore the idea of morality as the flowers begin to die as the hot wax is poured over them, however they then remain preserved and trapped for the rest of time. 

Christina Bothwell

A artist who has particularly influenced me is Christina Bothwell. Her sculptural work is mythical and enchanting whilst questioning ideas of death and rebirth. This is very appealing but made more powerful by her inspiring use and command of materials to combine various materials such as clay and wood with glass which creates powerful contrasts between the dense solid materials to the transparent glass as it is illuminated by light. 

I find this particularly interesting in relation to my work to experiment with using tone and sections of colored objects into my sculptural experiments to add greater depth and power to the work as show with Bothwell's work, the dense materials offer a greater emphasis on the translucent making them seem even more weightless and ghost like. 

"In my work I am drawn to the processes of birth, death, and renewal. What lies below the surface fascinates me and I try to capture the qualities of the "unseen" that express the sense of wonder that I feel in my daily existence. I am attracted to glass because it can do everything that other sculptural media can; in addition, it offers an inner space and transmits light. 

My subject matter includes babies, animals, and children as they embody the essence of vulnerability that is the underlying theme in my work. Currently I am exploring metamorphosis as a topic, and have been incorporating figures within figures in my pieces. Within each glass figure there is a smaller figure seen through the surface of the glass. 

I think of these pieces as souls, each being pregnant with their own potential, giving birth to new, improved versions of themselves."- Christina Bothwell personal statement. 

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -Anton Chekhov

Using techniques of using glass and glue guns for past work I experimented with how these could be incorporated with using wax to create sculptural forms. To do this I used broken glass which were arranged into fragile structures, carefully balancing the glass shards on top of each other to create interesting forms, I then used hot glue to make fine netting around these.

Once finishing the sculptures I poured wax over them which gave interesting results as the wax instantly set onto the cold glass shards creating interesting patterns as it did so. The wax also dripped off the glue stands to make beads of wax along them. The over all result of this makes a ghost like affect which offers a interesting dimension as the transparency of the glass gives a affect of the wax floating. 

Overall these small pieces offer a interesting juxtaposition between the hardness of the glass and thick wax base with the fragility of the joins and broken edges of the glass shards.