There were many questions raised during this project. The largest ones for me are how I can be of best use and how to sucessfully combine two very different aesthetics and working methods. I suppose the way these questions were addressed was just to make the work and let it inform us. In this way this project was more like a learning experiencve than a finished piece and I felt throughout the project a little unsure. It was as if we were like beginning students with some background knowledge rather than two experienced artists with a set studio practice. It made art feel new in a very exciting way.
Our working method was mostly trial and error as we were both using materials in new ways. While planning and vision played a key role it also became important to allow for mistakes and lots of testing. It was also a learning experience about communication- because it is too easy for two different people working on the same project to have different visions. It was at this point that we started making sketches as a means of communication. We discussed them openly and tried to find the problematic nature of them (which often was financial or temporal) and create new avenues for this exploraion.
Our ideas evolved. Initially we discussed giving the viewer a feeling of suspension (making the viewer more aware of the body) while viewing the landscape, emphasizing the relationship between landscape and body. Our first idea was to create a web out of suspension wires. Then we discussed making a suspended platform that the viewer had to climb to see the landscape. Eventually the idea was whittled down to paper forms with lights in them.
I think that if we were to do another collaborative project it would be far stronger. For me this was an opportunity for us to explore the potential of our combined efforts and now that we have a feel for each others style we could develop our ideas further.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Hey! Rebecca here.
So I've been keeping track of the project but not on the blog so here are my pseudo-posts all in one go. So, we started in one place and ended somewhere very different. All along we knew we wanted to combine sculpture and printmaking. That and the concept of body and landscape were the only survivors of the ideation process and subsequent edits.
This project was an exercise (at least for me) in problem solving as there were problems with our process at most points along the way. The original concept of suspending the figure over(or under) the landscape got axed a couple weeks into work. After looking at the processes we were considering and the amount of time and money it could take the decision was made to merge the figure into the landscape but still maintain a support structure so it could "hold" the body of the viewer. That also went the way of the dinosaur as did much of the research we had done to this point).
Next we discussed lights and lighting the forms from inside. This meant little to no interior structure. So we devised a method the cast prints onto forms to make a stiff "skin" that would ultimately be what was placed in the cube. I'm not sure we realized just how much work we had made for ourselves even after pairing the idea down to this point.
The first attempt to cast onto our forms failed when the polyurethane didn't want to stick to itself. So then onto watered glue. Not bad, but it dried slow and at first wouldn't release. After much trial and error the correct balance of release agent (vasilene) and drying time (if allowed to dry fully on the form it could not be removed in one piece, if removed too soon it fell apart).
So at that point, mass production all the way up install.
So I've been keeping track of the project but not on the blog so here are my pseudo-posts all in one go. So, we started in one place and ended somewhere very different. All along we knew we wanted to combine sculpture and printmaking. That and the concept of body and landscape were the only survivors of the ideation process and subsequent edits.
This project was an exercise (at least for me) in problem solving as there were problems with our process at most points along the way. The original concept of suspending the figure over(or under) the landscape got axed a couple weeks into work. After looking at the processes we were considering and the amount of time and money it could take the decision was made to merge the figure into the landscape but still maintain a support structure so it could "hold" the body of the viewer. That also went the way of the dinosaur as did much of the research we had done to this point).
Next we discussed lights and lighting the forms from inside. This meant little to no interior structure. So we devised a method the cast prints onto forms to make a stiff "skin" that would ultimately be what was placed in the cube. I'm not sure we realized just how much work we had made for ourselves even after pairing the idea down to this point.
The first attempt to cast onto our forms failed when the polyurethane didn't want to stick to itself. So then onto watered glue. Not bad, but it dried slow and at first wouldn't release. After much trial and error the correct balance of release agent (vasilene) and drying time (if allowed to dry fully on the form it could not be removed in one piece, if removed too soon it fell apart).
So at that point, mass production all the way up install.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
figurative landscape
Possible materials:
Wax, resin, fabric starch, polyurethane
Definite materials:
light, paper, plaster, paint, prints.
Currently we are getting the groundwork laid for the project. We are still figuring out technical details for the final presentation.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
weight-bearing landscape
Great start to the project- we both have ideas and they seem like they will work really nicely together. Rebecca has been discussing making a weight-bearing support system for the viewer and I am interested in making a ceiling-landscape. We have also discussed the confluence between the ideas of weight- bearing and embodiment. Currently we are researching the basics- methods/materials/sizes... please stay tuned!
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