Latex

This is a video I found on creating model heads from latex. The heads can be made with moving components by building up around malleable wire. This can be used to animate the eyebrows and the jaw. I think the created models are quirky and each one looks original however they can look a little messy.

Site Project

The site project was about creating an art piece outside the gallery space. We were told to consider our chosen site and through the work, make a comment on the space. The aim of this project was not to produce any piece of artwork and put it in an alternate environment; It was to consider the environment and why you have chosen it and to reflect this chosen space with in the work. Both the site and art should compliment each other.

The first thing to consider is the parks natural and wild component, I believe this is why we as humans enjoy recreational parks, it’s out of the city, off the concrete away from the constructive nature of man. In contrast to this another aspect of the park is one that I believe goes generally unnoticed. What I am referring to is the human enforced structure that dictates nature, the conscious decisions such as where a tree is planted, where a flowerbed is dug, where straight and geometrical pathways will segregate islands of green and the constant shaping, cutting and pruning of grass, shrubs, trees and bushes.

I transcribed this idea through a series 3D models and found objects. I displayed a fake plastic branch, a birds nest made from twigletts, fake moss, fake bird excrement and a plastic crow decoy. I was happy with the result of my work as I feel the idea was well constructed and as I intended my work went unnoticed to the point where the group were looking at another peers work in a tree where one of my pieces sat overlooked. Something that didn’t work particularly well was my attempt to create bird droppings. I first tried a latex and paint mixture but this did not look very convincing so before the tour of work I used a yogurt and water mixture however this didn’t look very convincing ether. On the whole my work got a great response and by far the most successful piece was my twiglett bird nest perhaps because of its sarcastic comment.

Sleep 9th - 14th Nov

Sleep is the final instalment for "Art Camel's" vote collecting for this brief we all produced a response to the word sleep. It was a very open brief and we could respond in any media. I responded with a bed made from wood that I then smashed. This was to portray how a feel about sleep, that i find it to be a waste of time and would like to smash up my bed and never sleep again.

Again with this brief James Ackerley decided he would name all the work and what media it had been made in, he stated my work to be "Morning Wood" "found wood" this again was not discussed with me and I only found this out when I looked at my work and found its label. I don't think I would have had an issue with this at all if I had been told about it and it had been explained to me why he was producing such labels for all our work. It seems that certain decisions are made by James Ackerley or by James and a few group members, why these items are not discussed I do not know.

Human form 7th - 9th Nov

Human form was a mixed media response. We would all be responding in a different media to see if this would give us some insight to a "successful media". I would be responding in wood and had formulated to plan to display a wooden armature I had been working on for my personal practice. My reason for this was to see if I could collect the most votes as I had spent many many hours producing the armature and I felt this was apparent in the pieces aesthetics. However when I saw Hannah's man carved from potato's I had a strong feeling I would not be collecting the most votes!

Paint 2nd - 4th Nov

For this display we would all produce a painting on identical A4 paper using only black and white acrylic paint. This was a good chance to keep the materials identical and restricted and hopefully collect results based on the quality of the artwork.

Soap 31st Oct - 2nd Nov

Whilst the clay pieces were still being voted on Hannah Davies manages to source a large block of soap for each group member. We decided that we would all produce a piece using this soap and it would be displayed and voted on Monday the 31st Oct but we would only display it until the Wednesday when we would change the display so we could collect more results in the time we had left before our deadline.

I drilled a hole in my soap and used hot water to erode the hole further other group members carved, baked, shaved, microwaved and washed there soap blocks. The results looked really good and each piece looked remarkably different which we felt was good for collecting votes. James Ackerley also wrote a small paragraph on each art piece. This was something that I had not discussed with him and I don't know if other members of the group had it just seemed like something he wanted to do which wasn't really an issue It would have just been nice to have known this was something he had planned.

Art Camel!

When I returned to the studio on monday I was taken back by how far the group work had come. The group had created a series of clay art pieces that were displayed on a long plinth with numbers and a voting system. The project had a complete remodel "Art Camel" had been James Ackerley's brain child. He explained to me that he had read somewhere "a horse designed by committee is a camel" meaning if everyone has a say and is accommodated for the result is "a whole other animal". I like James' idea of art camel, it works well and gives every group member the same opportunity to produce work.

At this point in the project I was happy that we had finally found a direction and we had a fairly good idea of what we would be doing and how it would fit into the period before our deadline. I was glad the group had found its feet but thought it was unfortunate that it had happened in the two days I had not been in as I would have liked to have more input rather than turning up and being basically told this is the idea this is what we are doing till the deadline.

The clay pieces the group had made were displayed and voted on for the week Oct 24th - 28th over this week we discussed other ways of collecting data using different media and styles.