charleymillarhnd

For my resolved object i wanted to include all the elements had previously explored with my drawings and smaller object making, incorporating text work, knitting, embroidery using parts of things I already had and used and thing left over from earlier in the p[project that i wanted to include.

the thing itself is very heavy to move around because of all its embellishments however i feel this gives it more human like qualities as well as the form and shape it takes. Because of this it is physically made to feel comforting and plesent to touch and hold. to cuddle and sit-beside it and be stimulated by the various textures is soothing i find really soothing and think is very succesfull. Compositionally everything wraps around and leads into the next surface element so i think it flows very well without appearing too perfect and retaining that childish messy quality i have carried with me throughout the project and making work.

of course it hold this unique on of a kind soft toy because i have made it purely for the purpose of soothing myself and occupying me and my space. however id like to think that the object would become its own thing and i and other people have the ability to add their own qualities and things to it despite the fact its inanimate.

I wanted to take images of me interacting and sharing comfort spaces with the object. Showing how I interact with it and how it would fit in around me and my life. ideally i wanted to also take it outside and about with me but the weather wasn’t in my favour and as it was already so heavy with it not being wet i just took these images inside and round my house. Locations where i sit and feel the most comfortable i sat for 5 mins at a time and recorded my time with the object. Touching and sitting with it in my own space.

I think theres soothing really sad but kind of endearing about these images. above all they feel kind of lonely and quiet. Maybe this is just because its just be and the object or the fact that i and the objects appear really childish. These images also hold a lot of potential for drawing and paintings

I later comprised all the videos I took and over lay them with one of the letters i wrote to/from the objects perspective. I find the video kind of endearing and disturbing as the contrast of me sitting with and caring for the object are met with me asking it all these questions about itself and question its ands my identity. Where and why did i make it? does it truly belong to me?

link to video : https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/549882702

Evaluation of Project

Looking back over the project and what i set out to do i think i have created a strong body of work. I have a new understanding of materials and have moved from 2D and 3D successful and repeatedly to spark new ideas and research thought. Initially wanting to look and and create my own comfort space i changed the project slightly to consider comfort objects rather than comfort space. I think this was a good call and i wouldn’t have produced as much work if i was just repeatedly making rooms and ideas for installations and spaces.

This has also encouraged me to look into other areas of interest thinking about objects and the qualities that they hold not only as children but how we carry attachment through to adulthood in different forms. How i feel about myself and the things that i make and how I value something aesthetically as well as my understanding of colour line shape and composition when making objects and not just drawings. I think physically making more things that are a bit more time consuming has allowed me o maybe focus a bit more and think more about the physicality of something and the space it occupies.

Given more time or if i could do the project again i would have left more time for material explorations with the expanding foam maybe resin and clay. 3D materials id like to experiment with and gage a better understanding of. However giving restrictions and not having access to studio space i still think i was explorative enough in my approach and methods of working. I would have also made more time for drawing and 2d work as i think i lacked it a lot in this project and got to invested in the actual making process.

I think i responded well to feedback throughout the crit and moved the project forward at a good pace as the weeks went on. I also enjoyed doing a bit more text and written work and having an open dialog with whatever it is i’m making and question its purpose and who it belongs too. Why am i making something and what quality sand purpose dose it have. My art as a style and the aesthetic qualities it holds i feel has also really developed this childish quality i think is very effective and reflects how i like to work and the approach I like to take.

COMFORT: Crit Feedback + More Resolved Work

Expanding foam and soft forms In response to all the soft objects I have made throughout this project and the 24 observational drawings exploring texture shape and form thinking a out a more resolved piece I wanted up the scale and spend more time considering before hand the types of shapes and textures I wanted to create. Keeping in mind that the object i was now making was a comfort object for myself. Making it for myself i wanted to have some kind of larger base to dd softer materials on top of.

The expanding foam provided This solid soft looking forms however became ver hard to work with when it had dried and hardened, moving and manipulating it was difficult however I think it provided me with the type of soft rounded shapes I had in mind and that are reflective of my last set of drawings. I also like the kind of fleshy tone and surface texture.

Taking these smaller hard forms and covering them with the softer materials I have been using (multi coloured sting ) allowed me have something solid and larger to start from and work round. I later decided to add these to a large pregnancy pillow that belonged to my mum and was gifted to me when i moved away from home. I thought this was a good place to start as the pillow already held a maternal quality to it and has sat on my bed ( a place of comfort) the whole time iv lived here over lockdown and has occupied my space. It carries with it a part of me and my mum and as i’m making this object for myself its almost got to have parts of it that are reflective of me or pieces of myself that i want to put in it. Creating and adding parts to my object became very time consuming and almost intimate as I had to physically wrap myself around to to sew and knit pieces around it. This closeness and hugged shape I think can be seen in how the object sits and slumps over by itself, it also looks likes its missing companion.

Final Crit Feedback

Interesting combination of objects and text- contrasting with the childish bold fonts and use of language. Develop the narrative between the object and yourself and to the audience.

interesting ideas surrounding skill and aesthetics of object making – dose it have to be “well made” to have aesthetic value? The objects and text hold sinister quality especially when looking at the expanding foam, the grotesque runs thought holding themes of inner and outer beauty.

the work can be interpreted as sophisticated when thinking about line, colour and composition and not just skill alone. along side a strong body of work throughout this project and keep up the relationship between soft sculpture and drawing.

Longer text works are quite successful and encourage more writing maybe in combination with images and drawings when making a resolved piece.

COMFORT: Artist research

Mike Kelley

American artist, Kelley is regarded as one of the most influential artists associated with the Conceptual Art movement. His work explores themes of youth, class, and the divide between high and low culture. His art is both playful, childish and disturbing. by using found objects like soft toys and knickknacks in contrast with the exploring the history and nature of the objects the artist investigates societal norms and how we place value on inanimate objects. His work spans across multiple disciplines drawings, paintings, soft sculpture and film.

“I think they’re really standardized kinds of repressed things in the culture—embarrassing things, like sexual dysfunction and the scatological,” he once said of his subject matter. “I started seeing throughout my work that a lot of these traditional, low comedy forms and subject matters were operating. I wanted to start to deal with that in a more conscious way.”

Kelley often assembled works of different media into installations of various constituent parts. In doing so, he helped to debunk the traditional expectation that the artist must be a master or expert of a particular medium. Instead, the unifying factor in many of Kelley’s heterogeneous installations and sculptures became above all conceptual rather than formal. His use of soft materials and how he repurposes objects is something i’m really interested in and am exploring in my own work. object making and adding meaning and context to inanimate objects is something iv explored and thought about a lot throughout my project.

Annette Messager

Born in 1943 in France, Annette Massagers work focuses on the perceptions of women by individuals and by society as a whole. Her earlier work focused on domestic objects such as textiles, toys, and found objects similar to the materials and things i am investigating in my current project. She consistently continues to question traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. “At first, I felt proud when someone said, ‘Your work looks like a man did it.’ Then I realized that was stupid,”

‘The Pikesis‘ is an instillation comprises an arrangement of more than a hundred long, spiked poles or ‘pikes’, propped up against two adjacent walls, each of the pikes either supports or impales a variety of objects as well as images. Small bodies made from doll parts, stuffed limbs, headless torsos and internal organs are placed in tights, or pierced by pencils and hung with images of torture instruments along side their victims. Other pikes show colourful drawings of limbs and figures as well as maps showing various contemporary political entities in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Messager’s used a wide variety of techniques and materials using photographs, drawings, text and found/made objects, embroidery, knitting and painting. Her works explore expectations of power in the relationships between male and female, vulnerability and aggression. ‘Pikes‘ a time when chaos and disorder is briefly allowed and the boundaries between civilised and uncivilised actions blur. “Showing parallels between the potential cruelty of children’s play and that of modern social and political structures, using a combination of pathos and violence. Evoking sympathy while suggesting sadism, her objects and imagery illustrate the paradoxical complexity of human relations on both personal and political levels.”

This contrast of using soft ‘innocent’ traditionally feminine materials in a serious and brutish context agin is something i’m interested in and have explored throughout this project.

COMFORT: Comfort objects 2

Comfort Doll

After a positive response in my last crit to the first comfort doll/object i made for my self i decided to make another two. Again just using scraps of fabric and things left over from other projects and things iv made. I also used old socks/pants that i would have otherwise thrown away. Repurposing bits of things i have to make myself a comfort object. The three of them big enough to hold and interesting and complex in terms of the different textures, shapes and colour. And when all but together create interesting compositions and things to draw from. Though i think they have a kind of ugliness to them they almost resemble a child drawing. They are kind of 3d drawings of scraps. Brough together making a composition of textures.

Observational Drawings

Moving forward these images and the objects themselves provided me with a staring point for drawings. Using a hand full of different timed drawing exercises on A3 paper using a mixture of kids crayons and pen. Some drawn by feeling the object with one hand and drawing with the other, some just looking at the object and not at the paper. As well as using my left hand and holding multiple pens at one time. The drawing themselves i think convey the kind of childish quality i think the object has and i like a lot of the lines and textures that have came out of them.

I think the drawings where you can see repeated circular motions hold a softness to them and communicate this idea of how the object feels. Using these drawings I could make maybe a larger scale comforter object with the purpose of reflecting these drawings and again making the object for myself out of this is have.

I also found these drawings to be a nice break from all the sewing knitting and gluing that has become kind of frustrating at some points through the project. Its given me time to think about and observe what kind of object i have made, the space it occupies and who its for, what purpose dose this comfort object have? dose it fulfil it?

Writing to objects

As it was suggested to me i my crit i wanted to write to the object and from the perspective of the object again thinking about what purpose dose it have and if it requires one at all. When writing i was kind of questioning why it was made and asking if it was selfish if me to make something intentionally just for myself. How would it feel to just be made purely for touch and comfort.

I them began to draw similarities between me and the thing i had made for myself out of my own belongings. Am i a comforter for people, do people rely on me to give them what they need?

I was also acknowledging that the thing iv made hasn’t been made very well purely because of my skill set and the materials i have however because i made it for myself i can identify its charm and things i like about it. Much like a child would think the world of a ragged toy or baby blanket.

acknowledging it has been poorly made but has redeemable qualities that i have attached to it. Maybe this is true when i think about myself and things that comfort me, acknowledging that its not the best quality or coping mechanism but it brings with it reassurance or feelings of comfort. The quality of an object or a person or a habit is more important that is aesthetic value.

COMFORT: comfort objects

structures

After feedback from a one to one i decided to move away from making box rooms as this was becoming very limiting in the sense that it could only be a proposal for a space and nothing else. So moving forward i wanted to create structures (small scale) still thinking about colour texture line and creating a playful space. Though time consuming to wrap in the wool the 3 i made offer lots in terms of thinking about occupying a space to make it more playful or child like. They also offer good potential for maybe more 2D drawings and collage work. I could also see them with smaller things (text ) imbedded in the wool itself.

Again however, I became stuck and decided to focus more on making an object instead of a comfort space i wanted to create a comfort object. Something that would sooth and reflect this same colourful safe childish environment that i have been focusing on.

comfort objects

shifting focus to objects of comfort my first response was things like blankets and pillows.As well as this i started to incorporate and play around with knitting and crocheting as acts of creating something to comfort someone and warm someone else. the fact that these processes are also associated with women and crafts instead of art. Th rhythmic quality of knitting i also found really interesting. I think a lot of what i take comfort in this female energy and surrounding myself with women. I always associate safety with woman. I feel like there is this shared pain and understanding between women that i don’t feel exists in the same way between men.

Women also hold this nurturing quality that i guess is almost expected and assumed. I made small little cushions with all the things i feel encapsulate comfort itself- safety, familiarity and reliability. Having them a small little objects you could hold i find really interesting, almost like little keep sakes that could be passed around when needed.

Thorough this iv been researching into why we have comfort objects. Things like security blankets or toys that provide phycological comfort to us not only as children but as adults. The transitional object does not have to be a blanket. It can be a stuffed bear or some other toy that the child finds comforting. The transitional object is comforting when the mother is not around or at any other time. Most mothers try to wash it because it becomes dirty and smelly. Most kids hold onto it because the smelliness and dirtiness forms part of what feels familiar, safe and comforting. But why do we loose this as adults?

According to the New York University Psychoanalytical Institute, “the transitional object may be conceived of in three ways: as typifying a phase in a child’s development; as a defense against seperation anxiety and, lastly, as a neutral sphere in which experience is not challenged.”

Reflecting on this i wanted to create my own transitional comfort object, using scrap fabrics and old thins associated with me. making it to ‘feel better’. Though it holds this real ugly quality to it i find it really endearing and nice to hold.

COMFORT : Environments/Text

Soft Play

Thinking about nostalgia and safety as themes that came up in my small tutorial group i was thinking about spaces that exists purely for comfort and play; as comfort can only be felt and achieved in a safe space. This made me think about soft play areas and the relief they supply to kids as well as parents. A safe space literally designed so you cant leave or hurt yourself; pure comfort. So wanted to mimic this using ball pit balls as objects to fill a space. However it didn’t really provide me with much to work from or move forward with. Though i did create some nice imagery to maybe return to or maybe draw from later it came to a dead end. Moving forward i began researching into a lot of sensory soft play spaces for children with learning difficulty and things like autism where everyday spaces (supermarkets) can be challenging and overwhelming. These spaces provide sanctuary from the outside world. A multi-sensory is the ideal place for people of all ages and abilities to have the stimulation they need to encourage them to interact with their environment and increase or maintain functional skills. I found this idea of an ‘away space’ really interesting and want to come back to it.

Comfort Text

Thinking about materials i started experimenting with crochet and knitting originally because i wanted to make a safety/security blanket. However i found it to be too time consuming as i was new to it but still want to do it throughout the project and continue to use and explore these materials. I love the colour-full soft quality of using wool and string and this motherly quality they have to them as I have discovered a lot of this project and my own feelings of comfort come from a type of female energy.

The text came from ‘Are you sitting comfortably?’ Listen with Mother which was a bbc radio programme for children which ran between 1950 and 1982. I found this very fitting with spending so much time inside ‘comfortable’ because of covid. Almost encouraging us to settle into our own space/minds/bodies as this is the way its going to be for a while weather we like it or not.

COMFORT: Artist Research

Cildo Meireles

Cildo Meireles is a Brazilian conceptual artist, installation artist and sculptor. He is noted especially for his installations, many of which express resistance to political oppression in Brazil. Experimenting with different techniques and conceptual strategies, in his sculptures and installations he uses a whole range of objects and materials, which he chooses for their symbolic significance. He explores human perception in its entirety, addressing universal and sometimes dramatic themes such as dictatorship, colonialism, globalisation, and the repression of human rights.

“I am interested in this relationship between the work of art and the viewer. Of course art can exist without a viewer, but it wouldn’t be so useful.“

‘Red Shift‘ is a piece which spans three rooms. The first room, entitled Impregnation, could be someone’s living room, yet everything except the white walls, is red. This work specifically I found interesting for its both simplistic but overstimulating qualities. Meireles describes the initial concept for the work as imagining ‘a place in which someone, for some reason – whether due to preference, mania, imposition or circumstance – would accumulate in a given place the greatest possible number of objects in different shades of red.’ The artist expertly explores themes of space and our perception of time. I am most interested in how the artist used and explores a pace how he communicates complex issues with simple materials and clean imagery.

Sheila Hicks

Sheila Hicks is a contemporary American artist known for her innovative use of weaving and sculptural installations. Ranging from small scale wall hangings to enormous site-specific works and installations. Hicks’s works blur the distinction between fine art and craft. Hicks colour pallet evokes this childish exciting and stimulating within any space it occupies. The texture of her materials further create a sense of childlike security and comfort – themes im discussing in my current work. She has traveled extensively throughout her career: setting up workshops in Mexico, Chile, and South Africa; developing commercially woven fabrics in India and tufted rugs in Morocco; and realizing large-scale commissions in the United States, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. In each place, she has mined local knowledge to inform work that transcends geographic boundaries.

“Textile had been relegated to a secondary role in our society, to a material that was considered either functional or decorative,” she explained. “I wanted to give it another status and show what an artist can do with these incredible materials.”“Textile is a universal language. In all of the cultures of the world, textile is a crucial and essential component,”

Her use of materials is something i am going to consider and experiment with going forward. I love how she fills a space with playfull forms and creates these interesting shapes with objects and colour. Hicks uses intensely saturated colour and the raw materials of textiles—wool, synthetic thread, linen flax—in works that are rigorously constructed by wrapping, piling, and weaving her materials.

Kazuko Miyamoto

KAZUKO MIYAMOTO was born in Tokyo in 1942 where she studied art at the Gendai Bijutsu Kenkyujo (Contemporary Art Research Studio). She moved to New York in 1964 and attended The Arts Student League of New York. Her work further explores our perception of space, weight and materials. Her work is characterised by her use of industrial strength cotton thread. The strands of thread are stretched taut often between multiple points at parallel, horizontal, and oblique angles. Once assembled, the strands form lines that alternately overlap or run parallel to one another. She creates an optical shimmer where the shape and texture changes dependant on where it is perceived in the room it occupies. Her work surrounds and almost embraces the viewer. Resembles a nest or cocoon, inviting associations with security and shelter. The contrasting elements are the things i find most interesting; the regularity and irregularity, hardness and softness, and lightness/ heaviness.

Nike Savvas

Nike Savvas is a senior Australian Artist based between Sydney and London. Trained as a painter, she works across scale and materials completing numerous large-scale installations

Drawing her inspiration from Op Art through to kitsch, her work often reflects patterns and complex mathematical algorithms – drawing attention to both the tangible and the abstract at once. Her objects and installations often invite the viewer to partake in the active experience of her work refocusing and moving around the space in order to understand the work. Her art is never still, rather Savvas creates fluctuating, moving objects that captivate and mesmerise the viewer and space.

Her materials span across installation, sculpture, kinetic and light-based media that challenges perceptions and demanding an active participation from her viewers. To me she draws a lot of similarities to Bridget Rileys work making math and formula into physical space. Music is often transposed into colours, and her palette often derives from the Australian landscape.

COMFORT : Space

Thinking about how it feels to be comfortable and how that would look in terms of space I wanted to make almost little comfort rooms where ideally you could go inside of. I used cardboard from the packaging of foods I comfort eat. And for the interior I used the stuffing from one of the pillows on my bed and the lights that normally hang over my bed. I really liked how They turned out in the end however they were very time consuming to make.

I find these images really Immersive and could picture them as rooms themselves. They look how it feels to be comfortable and have this real dreamy escapism quality to them. The actual precess of making them was almost like making a doll house of some sort and i think ill continue to make these little spaces throughout the project as it goes on

Mark Making

I wanted to experiment with the kinds of marks soft materials could make. Using different types of fabric sponges and anything I had to hand that hat a soft texture.

COMFORT :Initial Responses

Theme

Starting this new project I wanted to explore the idea of comfort. A theme a touched on in the last project thinking about contrast between comfort and discomfort.

Initial Responses

When I think of what comfort is for me I immediately think of objects I surround myself with and things I do or keep that sooth and bring me this feeling. Weather thats because of the person that gave me the item or memories attached to it. I also have unconscious things i do repeatedly that I guess sooth me in some way and I assume I do to make me feel comfortable. So initially I just made a digital collage on my phone of all the first thing that come to mine to me when I think about comfort. Making a list of anything I didn’t have an image of. the collage itself isn’t very thinking about possible avenues for the project and consider how personal i wanted to make it.

Thinking about home, specifically my mums house, I made a little house model out of soft pink clay which I initially though was rubbish but i guess everyone finds the thought of their childhood home comforting to come extent. I also took a lot of pictures of my bed a place I feel everyone experiences the ultimate sense of comfort. However has become a place i’m spending the majority of my time in to a point it becomes uncomfortable and i feel unproductive, in excess it brings around feelings of depression. Thinking about my space and how I occupy it I do use a lot of pink and always associate it with my room specifically sleeping and my bed. Lastly this week I made bubble wrap bra and pants to kind of represent the comfort and fragility I have within being in my own body and how hard it is to love your own body and how you almost need to protect this as a woman. My own body is my forever home and though its often difficult I think its really important to find comfort and safety in your own skin.

Initially I found starting the project and finding a theme was very challenging I think based on all of the things iv made and i’m exploring so far i’m confident this project has a lot of scope and i’m excited to further explore things like comfort space and the materials usage.

Author Archives: charleymillarhnd

PPE

COMFORT: Resolved work + Evaluation