Photography

This is a reminder that all photography relating to this blog can be viewed by clicking on the slideshow in the upper-right hand corner of the blog. This will take you to a Google Picasa web album with all the relevant photos.

Update!

The sculpture has now been wrapped in cling film. This is really just the final touch. The cling film adds depth to the sculpture since it makes it into more than just a skeleton. The rigid structure has been given given a thin, shiny membrane, like a skin. I think this serves to create a more organic piece and completes the relationship with the viewer; the withies are the bone structure of the piece, the cling film is the skin and the observer (who will hopefully be able to stick their head inside the work) will be the flesh.

Further Development

As I said earlier, given the chance, I would happily extend my sculpture beyond what it is (if I had the time and money) I thought about hanging straight edged strips of translucent plastic inside as a kind of andidote to the roughness of the withies. If I had a really extensive budget/timescale/space I would love to make an alternative sculpture like the one pictured above. Overall, my aim has been to expose the viewer to the simple expanding spiral pattern, by physically immersing them into the sculpture itself. I want them to appreciate this pattern on a three dimensional surface and consider the corresponding volumes.

Final Piece

I feel that the project has been mostly successful and I am pleased with my final outcome. I feel that I gained a suitable degree of mastery of the withies and achieved a result which matched my design drawings. There was a certain degree of distortion in the final outcome due to the high tensions in some of the thicker withies. If I was to make another similar sculpture I would be careful to reinforce the profile rings more to prevent deformation.

the outcome is closely linked to my observations and artists. I have carefully taken elements from the work of Wilson and Randall-Page. The structure is very thin and spindly; reminiscent of Wilson's work and contains Randell-Page's spiral geometry. I am very pleased with the view from inside and the spiral patterns that have emerged. The spirals were a key element in the design and I think they will be well noticed provided the sculpture is hanging at the right level. If I had had more time and resources I would have made a much larger sculpture, possibly with two entrance points.

Louise Bourgeois and Mario Merz

I wanted to mention Mario Merz and Lousie Bourgeois because I believe they have created some ineresting sculptures that relate to my work.

Louise Bourgeois has created a large spidery sculpture called 'maman'. It is both sinister and fragile. The abdomen appears to be made from wound strands creating maternal birth imagery. Bourgeois' work is often evocative of her emotional childhood and this spider is certainly a nightmarish vision. I appreciate the skill that has been used to make such a massive object stand so tenderly on its thin legs.

Mario Merz has made contrasting structures. He has produced two igloos and has decided to play around with transparency. Merz takes an anti-consumerist stance with his material choice; sandbags, stone, branches and newspapers. Merz is also interested natural groth patterns and the mathematics behind them (e.g the Fibonacci sequence).

final idea

I have decided to create a sculptural form that contains some of the geometry I observed in organic forms. I want to convey the spiral patterns I found in the form of a structure. The form should have thin strands that are bent and wisted in a manner similar to the top image. The squares are a visual aid to give a sense of volume. The idea is that the viewer can enter the (hanging) sculpture and look inside to observe the spiral patterns. The lower image is a conceptual view from inside the sculpture.

experimentation - computer work

In order to explore structure in a more efficient way I have decided to do some 3d modelling using a program called Blender. This allows me to work with large numbers of objects and maniplate them easily using the software toolset. For instance I can make thousands of hexagonal prisms conform (in terms of height) to a smooth, cuved surface. In 'honeycomb'I made a single hexagonal prism and made it conform to a triangular surface mesh (Each vertex was a starting point for a prism).
I have tried to illustrate a simple form derived from a complex structure. I have made the structure more organic by adding irregularities and anomolies. The image 'anenome' was a partial accident that resulted in a very strange organic form. Essentially, it is the same as 'hive' except that the prisms have been rotated with respect to their vertex normals.

Experimentation - Paper

After looking at Lu Shengzhong I decided to experiment with paper to disover some of its properties. I used a frog silhouette as a template to cut about 40 shapes from discarded commendations. I then layered the frogs to create a semi-random pattern using PVA glue. From a distance the shape of the cutou is not dclearly discernable and the piece looks like a mass of layered paper But on closer inspection the details of the cutting are apparent.
The spider-like creature is made form a starburst pattern. This demonstrates the strength of support that can be achieved when using multiple 'legs'. However this is unlikely to work on a larger scale due to the relative thickness of the paper. The inspiration for this came after looking at Haeckel's jellyfish.
The triangular experiment at the bottom was origionally meant to be a solid form but it was to small to construct properly. It collapsed and created an interesting layered form. This design is actually quite feasable for a large scale construction.

Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel was a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist. I am interested in his meticulous documentation of speciecies of plants, animals. At the time he made his observations, microscopes were more advanced than cameras. Haeckel was criticised for distorting the forms and using excessive artistic license in their representation. I was drawn in by his detailed drawings of microscopic organisms. I have tried to recreate some of his drawings using fineline pen.

Peter Randell-Page

Peter Randell-Page is a sculptor who creates forms influenced by, and based on nature. I like his observations of patterns in nature and admire his ruthlessness and fidelity to form. Pictured above is the sculpture, 'seed'. Randall-Page has used a pattern derived from nature that can be described using Fermat's Spiral . I like the way he has applied this pattern to a 3D form.

Anne Wilson

Anne Wilson is a Chicago based artist, she creates sculpture, drawings, and DVD stop motion animations using thread and textiles. I partuicularly liked her work at the V&A in the Spectacular Craft exhibition. The small woven forms looked like tiny alien civilisations and I liked the simplicity in construction. They had a distinct order and at the same time there appeared to be some kind of randomness. I also appreciated the siplicity of construction and the congruency of the individual parts on the large display table. I tried to recreate these forms using some pins and black, lacy thread.

observation - drawing

I started drawing fairly small objects that I found around me at home and in the art department. These included the shrunken pineapple, various shells and the plant stem. I tried drawing these in a variety of styles; watercolour, shading, and line drawing. The background of these drawings was often omitted to focus attention purely on the structure. I went on to draw some larger structures such as the tree and the 'bays' at school. I found larger subjects harder to draw because there was always a greater textural surface to consider, it was necessary to find a balance between true form and detail(textural).

observation - photographs

My observation so far has contained subject matter from a variety of sources. I was lucky to be able to take most of my photographs within a few miles of my house, thanks to a wealth of structures all around me. A large portion of my photographs were taken in the university of Reading. These included the shots of small organic plants and flowers, trees and derelict buildings. Because of the time of year (winter) there was a fair amount of decay and a lot of the structures I found were skeletons, wooden shells, husks and cold frameworks.

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer's Jericho is a good example of a bold, derilect-looking structure. I like the simple 'building blocks' approach and the attention to detail, such as the protruding reinforcements. Scale is also quite important here, the average viewer will be forced to experience perspective distortion. It would be interesting to see what this structure looks like on a small scale.

Lu Shengzhong

Lu Shengzhong has cut thousands of frogs by hand. In an exhibition at the V&A (spectacular crafts) he has displayed them in glass cabinets along with the offcuts. The frogs are red for good luck. I like his meticulous approach and the way that the individual strands of paper create a larger overall structure. I want to follow this up by experimenting with paper, looking at its qualities when folded, scored, layered, bent and twisted.

about this blog...

I want to look at the structures that I find around me in my everyday life. I want to look at big and small, organic and synthetic structures. I intend to document my observations through drawing, painting and photography. I will also look at artists such as Peter Randall-Page, who have looked at natural structures. I will also consider the biologist and artist, Ernst Haeckel and look at his carefully documented studies of macroscopic organisms. I will experiment with paper, card and wood and produce an outcome based on my studies.