'Body & Form': Sculpture - Design

It wasn't until this project brief I made my first major attempt at a sculptural piece that focused on a subject I was strongly interested in. Eventually becoming a recurring theme in some pieces I would explore and create in the future, I focused on the concept of memento mori as a basis in art.

I considered indirectly adapting the overused image of the evolution of man and applying the similar image to the inevitability of death, originally by connecting the depicted figures together in a segmented fashion as one rises from the ground, increases in size and returns to the earth as it once came from. My original sketches for this idea were very much simplified in form and felt all too simple to the point they risked undermining the main idea. Initial visual aesthetics were inspired by the frequently featured figures in works by Keith Haring.

Designs 1 & 2 of sculptural piece

 

Because of my concerns over the form of the piece and a need to enforce the idea, I looked for some potential references that could parallel it. Fortunately, one of my tutors first suggested a figure named the 'Modulor Man', a concpet developed by architect Le Corbusier. The Modulor Man, following a similar premise to Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, attempted to develop architecture through measurements of the human body (anthropometry) while applying modern mathematics. This brings forth (albeit unintentionally) an utopian quality from Corbusier's figure.

 

Design 3 of sculptural piece



 

"Death needed to occur to the utopian form"







 

To further emphasise on the allegorical nature of this piece, I looked to Pieter Breugel's Blind Leading the Blind (1568). The time that this painting was made happened to also be within a time period when memento mori artwork was prevalent, Pieter even being a major contributor to such works.

 

Final design for sculptural piece

 

By the time I had produced my final design, I had considered a title for the final piece, 'Descend to the Earth'. I wanted the title to have a similar 'commanding' nature in its wording as memento mori has arguably held as an expression (often translated as "remember to die").

Fourth Project Brief: 'Body & Form'

Much like any of the other project titles for subject matter, 'the body' is as vague as the next. However, having been determined on my pursuit, now for Fine Art, I decided I should narrow down what areas of interest around the body I could focus on for my outcome(s). Also at this point, I was given the option to narrow down what media (and therefore workshops) I work with. My primary interests lay in sculpture and metal work, especially since they were easily inter-connected in terms of practice. I also settled with painting, due to my personal success with 'Colour & Harmony' as well as animation.

To provide a more definate basis for my project, I developed an idea for a sub-topic around the body to work with. To compliment the exploration of 'Form', the subject I focused on (as I entitled it) was around "Life, Death & Life Within Death". The idea behind this was to look at how life and death encircle one another, certainly throughout a number of cultural perspectives. In other words, I aimed to look at how there is a prevalent belief of living beyond the physically known realms while simaltaneously look at the curious preoccupations people can have over death. The fascination draws on strong spiritual, mythic concepts, something that becomes relevant to my practice and more blatantly so as I continued.

'Colour & Harmony': Conclusion

This project brief was a wondeful opportunity to give me a sense of how I feel about producing work from a more personal frame of mind than, for example, more commercial aspirations. I originally took on the Foundation course with the idea that I would take to illustration. Convinced my ideas contradicted this notion and that I would only restrict my own artistic potential as an illuustrator, my tutor urged me to keep my mind open to the possibility I may wish to take on Fine Art as a subject.

To this day, I am ever grateful he was as insistant on that idea as he was.

'Colour & Harmony', as an experience, forced me to produce work in a more expressive manner and allowed me to realise how much more fulfilling it was for me to produce work purely out of my own interests, something I had clearly been doing already but perhaps took for granted.

I have continued to work around the ideas developed from 'Colour & Harmony' and have continued to take inspiartion from a few artists I discovered around the time I worked on this project, namely Howard Hodgkin, Wolfgang Bloch and Lucio Fontana. Additionally, for future ideas, I have incorporated a more visual approach to my reponses, allowing to make my pieces regarding the music more identifiable with myself and apply influences to my drawing style(s). This includes Corbusier's Modular Man, works of Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and even more unusual references originating from various comic-books and styles of online animators. It seems only logical that many of my art pieces, regardless of the intended final media, work as a translation from some form of drawing. Given the very natural and cathartic implications behind my option to produce drawings, it has become something of a primary nature to my art, most likely why it feels most natural for me to 'design' my responses.

'You've Got Another Thing Coming; Judas Priest' (2011)

'Colour & Harmony': Painting to Music (continued)

Due to the unfamiliarity of textile design and the divergence of the actual brief animation led to, my main focus for outcomes was in painting. By far, this was also the most productive and cathartic point throughout the project.

To some degree, I even took enough time to 'plan out' how my responses to music would be made. However, some painted responses were still for the most part spontaneous in their form.

Design of 'Hellions on Parade; CKY'

 

'Hellions on Parade; CKY' (2010)

 

Painting helped expand on the possibilities to how I could express my imagining from the music I listened to, which was always made clear in the titles of my art piece. Although, it is worth considering mixed media responses, incorporating paints with drawing materials. A notable example of this would be Ruska; Apocalyptica, which involved the use of ink. However, I hope to expand onto the use of additional materials.

 

 'Ruska; Apocalyptica' (2010)

 

'Pour Some Sugar on Me; Def Leppard' (2010)

 

Interestingly enough, Pour Some Sugar on Me; Def Leppard was the only painting I had done on canvas, the previous two were painted on what was called 'canvas pad', which worked more like card but had a canvas-like texture. Major pieces were done on simple A1 sized paper though some I may reattempt on canvas, or at least a more 'exhibit worthy' material. Here are the A1 pieces, presented as closely to the order of their creation as I can recall:

 

'The Virus of Life; Slipknot' (2010)

'The Flame; Chimaira' (2010)

'The Prolonging; Triptykon' (2010)

 

By far, the one I was most pleased with was my response piece to The Prolonging by the metal band Triptykon. This one certainly has the foreboding, darkly gothic aesthetic I would come to better associate myself with. In some ways, it also works as a piece on its own as a slightly abstract, dark fantasy art piece. Out of the paintings I produced during the project brief, this was certainly one that worked just as well beyond being a response to music which in its own right opens up possibilities to the impact it can have on an individual witnessing the piece. During the project, I also took on some experimentation with potential media. I chose to work, in some instances, on throwaway materials and expand on the outcomes. As a palette, I took an old magazine, opening it up from the centre page and tearing them out after a painting (though I sometimes had one pallette for mulitple, typically related pieces). These 'pallettes' became unitended responses, a in some ways worked closer to my emotional response to the music in comparison to the more landscape-like paintings.

 

 

 

Pallettes for (top to bottom): Hellions on Parade; CKY, The Virus of Life; Slipknot,

The Prolonging; Triptykon and Shogun; Trivium (Triptych)

 

For some of the throwaway materials, I looked at the possibility of painting on scrap wood and metal but also more household objects. For example, End of Time/ Soul on Fire; Danzig was a diptych produced from two old placemats and a triptych was painted from the sleeve of an album (called 'Shogun') by the band Trivium. All songs listened to for the production of the triptych came from the same album the sleeve originally came from. The 'cover' of the triptych was in response to the title track.

 

Side 'A' of 'Shogun; Trivium' (2010)

 

Side 'B' of 'Shogun; Trivium' (2010)

 

There are certainly components of this piece relatable to The Prolonging..., namely in terms of aesthetics.

'Colour & Harmony': Other Workshops - Animation

At the point of starting this workshop, I have almost never attempted animation with only a few crudely produced stop-motion pieces on record. Understandably, I was never expected to have produced a complete animation by the end of the project brief. As an introduction, I was offered the chance to produce a rendered object or figure. For simplicity's sake, I improvised in how I could create a figure from very geometric shapes.
Introducing 'Roy-Bot':

While the this is certainly crude and simple in its construction, it was an enjoyable experience for me alongside the more focused approach in producing my music-based designs. However, I feel my interest, animation-wise, would lie in other media for reasons that became more apparent to myself later on.

'Colour & Harmony': Other Workshops - Fashion Design

Alongside painting, the other two workshops I was assigned to were textile (fashion design) and animation. However, because the animation workshop was made to almost exclusively cover digital animation and was something the entire class (me no exception) needed to be initiated in, this was never applied to the project brief directly. Fashion design, however, was more straightforward in putting it to the brief. In fact, it was perhaps approached no differently to how one approached it when painting.

However, very little of what I produced from the workshop remains, little was really made, let alone stood out and anything else was disposed of when I had to clear through some of my artwork in preparations for university. Nevertheless, the only surviving piece(s) from textiles were probably the only contributions worth noting and are also the only reason for this particular post.

 

 

 

 

 

Batch 'A' of 'Rites of Spring: Stravinsky'

 

I only listened to two segments from the entire piece while creating a series of collective images. The first six images, Batch 'A', were made to be purely abstract, not representing anything in particular. With the next series of images from Batch 'B', I chose to be make them more illustrative but still relatively ambiguous.

 

Batch 'B' of 'Rites of Spring; Stravinsky'

 

Although this was certainly an entertaining and fulfilling moment in its own right, I don't see this going any further. Stylistically, it wasn't that different to the previous drawing/painting to music, at that point it was already clear that I could do a lot more using paint. However, that didn't stop me applying drawing materials (graphite, charcoal, etc.) to certain works for mixed media pieces.



'Colour & Harmony': Painting to Music

Painting certainly came across as a straightforward approach to this project brief, especially since it was one of the workshops I was set to take part in. Also, once taking to paint in place of the previous drawing approach, this allowed my responses to the music to become more personal and individual. As an introduction to the idea of painting and music, I was to listen to a number of varied tracks along with the rest of my Foundation Art & Design class. We did also use drawing materials, in fact, prior to actually using paint. Some of the music we listened to once when drawing and again with paints. Others were exclusively while drawing or painting. The following were the results;

 'Die Fantastischen; Krieger (Aphex Twin Baldhu Mix)'

'Sonata no. 3 in C Major; Johann Bach'

'Clapping Music; Steve Reich'

 

 

'First Movement; Steve Reich'

 

 

'Guitar Drag 2000; Christian Marclay'

 

Looking back on this, I say Guitar Drag... still holds up as the strongest piece I produced among the other responses displayed. The conception of the idea very much felt like a 'spark of inspiration'. As the title should have made obvious, it was based on the piece by Christian Marclay called Guitar Drag where he recorded himself pulling along an electric guitar across the ground while connected to its amplifier. Marclay arguably created 'music' while simultaneously causing destruction, which became something of a buzzword leading to the idea of my art piece.

This time, the inaccuracy of the lineart became appropriate as I could also make it inconsistently erratic, further emphasising it track as a destructive piece by cutting into my drawing with a craft knife. Immediately after this, I would begin listening to music of my own selection. I feel this allowed my responses to hold even more personal qualities (though this was not necessarily always the case). I would also, as a result, be given more of an opportunity to take time in producing my responses, allowing me to plan out, even elaborate on a design.