Self doll project.

This week our project was a self doll project that was to include aspects of our personality or a specific past experience.   It was to measure exactly half our height.

Initally at the start of this project I was looking at life work balance but abandoned this idea to look at just balance.   After spending the day trying to get bamboo and weights to balance I decided against this too.   However the weight idea sparked another and I decided to look at food,  diet restictions, the relationship food has with my body and how different kinds of food throw the body off balance.   For me the idea of physical balance was in my feet so I decided to make feet/legs with different foods.  I threaded the food on to bamboo canes and stood them on flip flops.   I used wool to wrap and bind like a skin.

At this stage I was lost because I didn't know where to take this next.    Mike suggested that I put the feet on the photocopier.   This I did and after I decided to tear the photocopies up and make a collage using the different pieces.    I sewed the paper on to fabric using one piece of wool criss crossing as I went.  I added strands of thread and when I stepped back from it chewed food and saliva came to mind.

Next because I regarded chewing as a sculptural acitivity I chewed and mixed some food and applied it by throwing it at the collage.  Instead of eating my lunch the chewed and mushed food ended up dripping down and collecting in the pockets of the collage.   Some of it adhered to the string.   Again once I had this done I was lost.
This is what it looked like.

                                                                           

                                                    

On the Thursday of that week we had a visit from Sculptor Maude Cotter and after her morning lecture she visited us in our studio.   She spoke to all of us about our work and gave some advice as to where to take it next.   She liked what I had done with the feet, the wrapping of the wool as skin, the use of food.  She suggested as I had identified an area with possibilities I should push it forward make more, expand, use more wool.   She suggested that I look at the work in relation to the space it occupied, but basically to keep going not to be anxious about it let loose and to enjoy it.    She thought my collage was less interesting.
After her chat and with our review looming I really did need to do more.   Thursday night went making another form.   This time I used bread, I thought how the body needed food to survive and to function.   Something as basic as bread could provide for this need, but for people with restricted diets and food intolerances it could thow the body completely off balance.
                                                           

 

For Friday mornings review I decided to link the pieces together with wool but it didn't work.   On their own each piece worked better.
I found this project hard and difficult to engage with.  The first day went researching and then procrastinating over ideas.   Mike said 'make it first judge it later' but even doing so didn't seem to help.  However I learned some valuable lessons from this week.   I need to consider all aspects of the materials I use, colour, texture, think about what the use of the material says or conveys not just to me but to other viewers too.  Another important lesson I feel I've learned this week is not to use materials just because I have them and because they're convenient.
By the way my favourite part of this weeks work is the collage and I have to say it was the most fun and enjoyable part of the week.

Selected Discipline  SCULPTURE

We had our 1st progress review in Sculpture to-day, it covered our work for the last four weeks. Our project was on the body. The brief was as follows,
''Employing a range of sculptural activities, processes and forms prove/re-constitute/re-define/re-construct/re-design one or more aspects of the human body.''

As before we started with mind maps.

From this process I started to look at the lungs, the trachea and scaring, bringing the inside outside.   I explored elements that involved layering, soaking and linking.  I started to make a form out of recycled cardboard, packaging from some kitchen appliance.  To give it a spine I used wire.   After that I tore the card and wet it and layered it on to the wire.   I also use a glue gun to stick the card in places.  

 

After it dried completely I decided to soak it, immerse in water. I wanted to see how it would react.
The results were as follows,

• the colour changed it became darker
• it pulled apart, the glue didn't hold
• it became shorter, slid down the wire because it was heavier.

Once it dried again I decided to see what impact colour made.  Below are the results.

 

My next experiment involved pipe lagging and stronger wire for a frame. I'm still thinking about scaring and layering using different materials.  I used a glue gun to layer pieces of the pipe.  The hot glue melted and ate in to the pipe and completely transformed it, no longer bearing a resemblance to the smooth surface I started with, turning it into a scarred textured  one.   As the glue fell over the pipe it left delicate strands that looked like thread.  This reminded me of the mucus that is expelled when the trachea tightens in response to allergens. 

 

I really enjoyed this experiment as the materials were doing all the work, transforming themselves. This ugly looking thing was emerging before my eyes and all I was doing was facilitating its happening.   

For me this experiment was a success, even though it could have been better if it had come directly from the floor and not from a base.   However this was necessary for to move it around.   Again as before one of its weakest elements was its colour, so I experimented with this by spraying it.  This is what happened.

At this stage I decided that I should revisit an experiment that I had started earlier in the project and had tired of. I was working with sponge and flexible pipe.  I started by stuffing the pipe with newspaper to give it some rigidity so that I could apply sponge to it.   Before I put the sponge on I covered it with tissue paper and pva  glue.   When it dried it looked like scaly skin as it was flaky and came away from the pipe in some areas.    I also used coffee to stain it so it looked ugly and diseased.

 

Next I started to layer the sponge on the pipe using the glue gun yet again.   As before it melted the pipe and some of the news paper started to peep through.    This time I wanted the pipe to come directly from the floor so I put some strong wire through the bottom part of the structure filled it with expanding foam and stapled the wire and pipe to the floor.    As the foam started to expand it found holes where it came through reminding me of ooze and mucus.    It also held the form of the curve in place.   I wanted it to look as if it was winding its way up and protruding into the ceiling when finished.

To make the sponge look scarred I burned the sponge on the stove but later I used a heat gun get the same affect.  While working at home this got dangerous because of fumes.   I should say that in college there is a facility to do this in a controlled environment with extraction but because this was getting so big and non transportable I left the burning aside in favour of paint to get a similar look safely.   

 

At this stage I wanted to exploit the soaking qualities of the sponge further so I sprayed it with acrylic paint until it was full of liquid, it dripped and ran and took the colour right through the piece.   Eventually after hours of sticking and gluing sponge its 13 meters twisted its way up to the ceiling.   I secured it in this position.   The last thing I did was to add thread to it.   I liked the way the strands looked like dripping liquid.

Again I feel this piece of work has been successful, grant it there's nothing beautiful about it,  but  its ugliness certainly makes me think there's something nasty going on here, there's decay and disease.

The last experiment I did in this project was to look at ooze.   Again I used pipe, this time a piece of land drainage pipe.   This had pre cut slots to enable water to disperse into the soil but I decided to make them bigger.   I used heat to make bigger holes and I melted fabric and wool on the surface of it with the heat gun.   Earlier in the project I was looking at possible materials that might ooze and seep through and I identified materials such as butter and golden syrup as having some possibilities.   I was also remembering the giant squid installation we saw in Dublin Contemporary and the liquid that was on the floor there.   I remembered our guide telling us it was some kind of syrup and indian ink.

I mixed margarine and golden syrup together and pushed it through the pipe.   The heat of the room made it melt slightly and it started to weep.   This is what I wanted to happen so the sticky mess that I handled and pushed into the pipe was definitely worth the effort.   This is what it looked like.