Before wrapping things up with the conclusion from my journal, I've decided to put up a few posts featuring most (if not all) the completed pieces I produced during this project brief. Firstly, I'll show my small-scaled sculptures I worked on towards the three major final pieces.
Silver Centaur (2011)
Silver Centaur was the first departure from the more familiar approach developed from my wire sculptures from during the 'Body & Form' project. Although more unconventional than my wire figures, this sculpture still had the simplicity in its construction. The metal was easy enough to be shaped by hand alone and the separate segments held together by spot-welding. I felt this was interesting method of visual interpretation, providing new alien forms to highly familiar mythical figures. This idea was actually developed from some clipart found on Google when searching for visual references of the centaur:
Admittedly, I would have wanted to explore this style more often but was partly unable to on account of attempting to produce numerous ideas at one time, each often with different materials in mind.
Bullman Idol (2011)
To this day, Bullman Idol remains to be a personal favourite out of the artwork I have even produced thus far. Not only is it charming enough in its simplicity but it's means of construction was a delight to pull off. While not necessarily evident from viewing the photo above, this Idol pieces was actually made of a small column of balsa wood. Upon cutting the base shape out, the details could be 'carved' in using sandpaper and a craft knife. Specialised equipment was very rarely even needed to complete this sculpture as it was, only the horns needing specific metalwork machinery to give them the curved, pointed look. The other Idols were just as easily constructed in the confort of my own deskspace in my room. I definately would like to revisit this method for possible future sculpture projects.
Untitled (Hydra) (2011)
Untitled (Basilisk) (2011)
I must admit, there isn't much left for me to say about this one, the idea of it's construction was somewhat spontaneous, attempting to make use of unused materials. Looking back on some peer feedback, one student commented on there being a sense of movement from looking at this image of the piece and I can concur to that notion. The idea of this creature in motion is perhaps better captured here than in my drawn interpretation.
Life Cycle of Salamanders (2011)
The concept of the Salamander in mythology was definately one of the most interesting ones I had come across this project. It also gave me a highly appropriate idea to carry out regarding certain materials. Because the supposed indestructible nature of the animal and its paralleling relevance in alchemy, I chose to apply decomposition and the 'life cycle' to this creature. Using stretchable rubber toy lizards, I stuck a number of them onto sheets of metal shaped by various methods. Each lizard was to then be exposed to a blow torch to different extents, one of them having no exposure at all. This resulted in a chain of different degrees of deterioration, or decomposition.
Coatlicue Idol (2011)
Coatlicue Idol was an attempt to apply slightly more unconventional (albeit rather appropriate) material choices to the base concept that developed Bullman Idol. Although the snake skirt does work to bring in some colour admist the mostly blackended figure (the balsa wood was coloured from Indian ink, with details brought out by drybrushing acrylic white), the skirt probably appears a little out of place, especially when the plastic snake heads on top were inked over. If I were to recreate this piece, I may consider applying a slightly more 'earthy' material, not too different to what was used for the hair on Typhon & Echdina.
Dagda Idol (2011)
This piece was intended to be a slightly more faithful return to the methods of creating Bullman Idol while still offering some means to contrast the figure. Most notably, I attempted this by bringing out the figure by painting it in white acrylic, adding on details as black. This was also partly applied as a reference to the basis of this Idol's design.
KFC (Kentucky Fried Cockatrice) (2011)
As it might be possible to guess from the title, this piece was intended to be more comical, despite apprently disturbing some fellow students. Using the body of the rubber chicken left over from making the prototype Basilisk sculpture, I covered the remains of the cut-up toy in wire and mod-roc to make a piece somewhat referring to Ron Mueck's piece Still Life (2009).
Tsuchigumo: Blood & Hunger (2011)
This was definately my most chaotic work from this project brief. Although it was one of the most interesting ones to have attempted construction, this was also the piece that faced most criticism, from peers and tutors alike. Although some people felt a deal of time and effort was dedicated to its construction, most people stated it had 'too much going on'. One tutor almost completely dismissed the piece for being too much like miniature modelling. Considering ...Blood & Hunger was intended to be an attempt to bring out the overly-dramatic mythical scenes of Japanese art in the form of miniatures (not unlike those from Games Workshop), it is difficult to properly determine the actual success of this piece.
Untitled (Colchion Dragon) (2011)
Made as a contrasting piece from the similar Hydra sculpture. Though, I feel this might have benefitted more being painted white, not unlike the more abstract depiction of this figure I would produce later on. Although, the choice in colour could just as likely be in reference to the Colchion Dragon's relevance to the Golden Fleece (its relevance being the Fleece's guardian).
Dullahan (2011)
This was not only the last smaller sculpture I made from this project brief but it was also the only one that was made in any similar style to the Silver Centaur. Even then, this was more like a basic wire sculpture, with curved metal plating to give the figure depth and structure. Still, there are elements to this piece that I find appeal in and it's far from being one of the more displeasing outcomes.
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