Looking at bridge pattern in 3d.  After the seminar on 3d, I discovered there were many ways I could work in three dimension . The 1st structure I made was with rolled up newspaper, pva glue and tissue paper. I found that I was very drawn to the idea of using materials in a way that they were not necessarily designed for.   At this stage  I was looking at the work of Tim Hawkinson. He uses a huge variety of materials in many different ways, from human hair to cardboard, from spray foam to toothpaste tubes to finger nail clippings.

 Tim Hawkinson sculpture

   As a result of seeing how he worked, I decided to use tin foil to interpret the pattern in the bridge structure of the motorway.     I wanted to make my pattern move, so I knit it and and hung it as a mobile. 

Other reasons for knitting  were that the intertwining stitches remind me of the way the roads  twist and turn and how they intersect with each other and the motorway.   Also I associate pattern with a knitting tradition, and it was something that I watched my Mother and Grandmother doing as a child.
 Even though the tin foil is stiff and solid, the act of knitting it loosened it and each of the sections twist and turn in their own right.
 
Wanting to explore this further,  I looked at other materials I could knit with, using wire and lagging for central heating pipes.   I was also looking at Artists who used knitting in their work.



    
       

 Susie Mac Murray is one Artist who used an knitting element in her work and this piece is knitted with human hair.

As I was looking at the road markings the arrows, the zig zag lines,broken lines and continuous lines, all these things reminded me of patterns and stitches. So I started to play with these lines. Keeping in mind that the project is 'movement'  how do I make these patterns move. I started to look at the Op Art period and how Bridget Riley's work says everything I wanted to say about implied movement.   Her work is so exciting it jumps off the page, makes you dizzy.  Your head knows this is 2d and its not moving, but yet your eyes tell you something different. Her work with squares, lines and circles all remind me of the road markings and the patterns I see on my journey every day.  To try to understand her work and how the eye sees movement, I'm reading Eye and brain.                                                                                                                                                                     

After looking at Bridget Riley's work I've returned to the photos I took on the motorway and I have taken a very simple pattern form one of the bridge rails.   So how do I make this pattern move.

After drawing various versions of the pattern I decided to make cut outs and scatter them randomly on a page to see what effect this had. I also used bigger cut outs and put them across the studio floor in order to see the effect of movement in this way.

     

Wanting to make this pattern more 3d I layered the cut outs in black and white to see what this would do to it.

   Also made small  paper models of the pattern and I used the white of the paper with two other colours to make the pattern more 3d.

movement, motion

Started with my journey, roadways and motorway I use to get to LSAD everyday. Looked at signage and road markings. While these don't move in themselves they imply movement, providing me with  a visual language that projects me forward in a certain way.

At this stage I was looking for Artists who used the motorway as a subject.   Found the work of Anthony Collins who produced a set of prints 'The Road Series' derived from his daily commute from Drogheda to Dublin city.   Also looked at the motorway sculpture ' Perpetual Motion' by Remco De Fouw. This work is very familiar to most people, as it is very visible on the Nass section of motorway as you head for Dublin.