In response to my final crit I decided to make more dough models this time using pink dye. I played around with forming a shape I was happy with before wrapping around wool to contort and restrict its form.
Of course I only have access to make these models at such a small scale but ideally I would like them to be presented on a much larger scale about 6ft and spaced out from one another so you could walk around them full 360. I could have multiple of them in the same room almost interacting with one another.
I feel this project had been successful in the sense that I have produced a large quantity of work surrounding the theme of restriction moving between 2d mark making, photography and 3D model making. I have also touched spin themes of sexual frustration, comfort and discomfort which I feel are all very relatable given the current covid 19 circumstances.
Starting off the week I wanted to further manipulate my body to feel restricted and uncomfortable. Playing around with different materials I wanted to appear uncomfortable while almost being held by the materials i was using. I think my favourite images came from when i used tights with the cut out sections as they show an almost relief from being held and pulled in all the time.
I wanted to use soft materials that are traditionally used to keep things warm and safe – wool, tights, bubble wrap. Things that on there own don’t carry feelings of being uncomfortable. But used in these images they pull and contort me to the point it appears painful and manipulative. The contrast of comfort and discomfort is a re occuring element to this project that i think enforces feeling restricted.
Abstracting The Form
After a one to one i was encouraged to uses these images as a way of abstracting the form and making it less about the body and make it more abstract. So still thinking about feeling restricted and uncomfortable i played around with materials – soft , hard, flexible and stubborn to try and communicate the discomfort.
This also led me to think about the properties of these materials and i really enjoyed working on a small scale in 3D. These little clay models almost resembled a form without feeling to specific.
These images also show a type of fragility that comes with soft materials – this is reflective of the fragility I think we all feel when being restricted by the covid rules and fragility of my own body and mental health.
Material forms
upping the scale and bringing in more materials and elements i played around with trying to almost hold up the soft materials. Manipulating them to fit in spaces and twisting them to fit a specific shape or line i wanted it to follow. I also made a dough like material that resembled my flesh and in someways how i felt. lazy and slouched over all the time. I felt like i too was holding myself up when i just wanted to be flat (like the dough).
Again i think these 3d forms and sculptures iv made create interesting lines and carry this feeling of disscomfort within them. They also provide a lot of interesting shapes and lines to draw an sketch from.
Sketches and drawings made in response to all the 3d work produced over the past 2 weeks.
I decided to make a post about all the artists i have looked at thought the WAWWA project to give some context to my work outside of my sketchbook.
Sarah Lucas
Lucas is part of the generation of YBA’s who emerged during the 1990s. Her work centres around themes of feminism, sexuality, gender and identity. In the early 90s she began using furniture as a substitute for the human body, usually with phallic imagery attached. The artist attaches sexual and humorous connotations to every day objects and materials. I like the artists use of materials and how she creates these different forms with sexual undertones.
Her work also included repeated images and symbols relating to the female body and the female experience. This has influenced how i view myself when creating work. Weather thats taking images of myself or making 2D work that represents the female form. As well as this i have used similar materials in my own practice with the intention of creating something that eludes to a human form without being too specific.
Phyllida Barlow
Phyllida Barlow continues to be a big influence o my work as you can probably tell. Her creative process of moving between 2D and 3D work is something I routinely do in my own practice. Her use of colour and materials again influences my work as her sculptural work relies on the space it occupies to communicate scale. I took this into consideration when making 3D models and taking images trying to image them filling a room and how they my be perceived depending on the environment they are placed in.
I also focused a lot on how Barlow creates the illusion of wight and pressure despite the material she is working with, something incredibly light and hollow (fabric) she manages to manipulate in order to appear overwhelming and heavy. I have tried to implement this in my own way of working due to my lack of access to materials an space. So making something appear a-lot heavier and larger than it is has become a new skill for me.
The artists work always achieves this illusion of physical pressure and gravity regardless of material or location.
Bruce Neuman
Again another artist that who’s work continues to influence my own. His work discusses complex themes around the human body, language and space. Specially in this project I researched and focused on his figurative neon light works. These works of his discuss and bring up issues around sex, humour, death and love, as well as politically led events such as racism, war, and torture. Again a clear focus on the figure and underlying pressures people are put under in our day to day lives. Light and colour i think are elements of my work i’m always aware of, as well as communicating this presence of pressure. Its easy to draw connections to his work and my own when looking at the neon wire pants I made and the images that spawned from this.
Anna Sew Hoy
American artist known for Sew Hoy Known for her abstract sculptures and use of clay to create a sense of intimacy within installations and environments. I think my 3D and Photography work too holds this feeling of intimacy and venerability in different ways. The artist often begins with solid blocks of clay and then adds fabrics, such as jean material or velvet flocking, metal elements, wood, rubber, and mirrors to create pieces that are both industrial and organic. Again the use of contrast between soft and hard materials is something i’m interested in exploring in my work and this artist dose it so successfully. She almost creates a safe space that at the same time feels so open and exposed.
“One thing that inspires this work is jamming together opposites and making them exist in the same space. I don’t know if they coexist or if they’re fighting the whole time. Fighting the whole time is good, too. In Blood Moon Breastplate (2019), it’s the textures—the frayed, rough edges of those jean seams, as against the light-sucking dry velvet, as against that super glossy patent leather. I get a lot of energy out of finding things to pile on top of each other, and I want them to be questioning each other while they’re together on the same piece. I suppose one brings the other into focus: the leather scrunchie is a foil for the rust-red velvet and vice versa.”
Ernesto Neto
Neto is a Brazilian Conceptual artist whose installations allow the audience to touch, see, smell, and feel his artworks for a truly sensory experience.
“For me, mind and body are one thing, always together,” “I believe in the sensual body, and it is through the movement of such body-minds that we connect the things in this world, in life—the way we touch, the way we feel, the way we think and the way we deal.”
His work explores the boundaries of physical and social space through interactive, tactile, and biomorphic structures. Again this artists use and understanding of weight and hight and pressure are all things i’m really interested in. Done expertly with the use of materials and lighting and how these forms and objects occupy the environment they are place in. The fact his work is so immersive in interactive i also find really interesting. His uses of scale and space really adds to the interactive element and if outside of the covid circumstances experimenting with audience interaction would have been something i really would have enjoyed in this project in particular. Although often considered minimalist, his works differ from those of artists working in this tradition through their interactive quality.
Rebecca Warren
Warren is a sculptor who works in clay, bronze, and steel along side 2D collages and wall mounted assemblages of objects she has collected. Her ideas, influences and themes are filtered, distorted and often discarded as they find three-dimensional form. Her sculptures can be soft, yet also aggressive in their depiction of the female form. Her work takes influences from Willem de Kooning, Alberto Giacometti and cartoonist R. Crumb, individually and collectively Warren’s works form an entirely modern, complex and distinctive visual language. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2006 and the Vincent Award in 2008.
aThe shapes and forms in her work range from figuration to abstraction and from amorphous to more clearly recognisable, Her work has also been described as “cartoonish and eroticised”. In my work to i like to play abound and abstract forms reflecting the figure as well as making more abstract work, I like the artist understanding of her materials and the way in which she applies it to he artistic process. Allowing the ideas tpo become and exist more naturally and less forcefully with no clear image in mind. I d like to implement this more free and expressive way of working when it comes to 3D work and making models
I made some quick ink drawings just in responce to the images and sexual themes i was disscussing and exploring in my work last week. Though I don’t find these to be successful on there own it gave me some space and time to think about if this sexual element was somthing i wanted to continue with or if it had ran its course.
I think the colours red has came up repeatedly in the project as I feel it carries with it this feeling of urgency in as well as this kind of secretive, sexual nightly connotation when i pare it with the dark spaces I am creating (bedroom, darkroom and cutoff spaces)
Feeling Trapped
Following my crit it was picked up on about my use of wire and caged shapes i had exploed right at the beginning of the project. So i decided to play around with it a bit more and use my scanner to see what type of images i could come up with. They hold this feeling of being pushed and uncomfortable.
I Think they work well together as a set of images as well as individually n their own. The contrast of my soft pale flesh and this hard metal work really well in the sense that they have been put together unwillingly and forcefully.
I think if one of the images were to be scaled up to the side of a wall it would amplify the feeling of pressure and urgency for escape.
Using 4 peaces of string the same length as the edges of the paper I was using i played around with mark making to kind of represent the patterns or moments I has making while working in my room (between the four walls). I think they are successful 2D works in the sense of shape and movement and it was a was a good exercise to just play around with materials without having the overthink conceptually or be too concerned with the outcome.
These are works looking at the photographs I have taken in the past 2 weeks with a specific focus on the colour pink.
Going forward with the project i really wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and explore the underlying sexual tones of my work. For the following images i wanted to ephasise the uncorftablity and restictive nature when taking/sending nude images to a sexual partner. As my people are now sending exploitive images/videos due to the current circumstances. It is almost expected and common place for young woman to take these sorts of images as i cant think of one person in my life that hasn’t sent a nude. I have also been reading a-lot about how sex work has changed for young women now making money from these images with sites like Only Fans.
I took a material and object i hated (a plastic pillow that normally sits on my bed) cut it into strips and sewing them together before wrapping them round my body. The uncomfortable nature of the pillow i feel was communicated in the images below as is pulled and rapped restrictively round myself.
Sex Work
I also played round with where and how i wanted to lay/sit and the lighting the images were taken in. The pink light i feel echoed the kind of night time secrecy i feel is associated with sex. I especially like the over exposed pink images as they have this kind of venerability about them as its clear i’m not the one taking these images reflecting that i’m maybe not in control with the situation ; trusting someone to take them and not share them.
Government Sexual Guidelines
Reflecting on this week
I feel like has really pushed me out of comfort zone and feel like iv made good progress in the project so far. moving forward i maybe want to go back into doing 2d work is i feel it my be a brake from the researching and might let my ideas form more naturally through experimentation.
Moving forward with the project i wanted to play around with photography and using my body as a medium.
Thinking about restrictions in terms of material using plastic has this overwhelming and obvious connotations of suffocation and feeling confined. String carries with it these similar connotations as well as it also being quite soft and flimsy unlike plastic.
NEON
with inspiration from artists like Tracy Emin and Bruce Neuman i had wire from a prevoius project iwanted to play around with wraping it apround my body creating these amazing images.
My favouire images atre the ones where they resemble pants as i think they carry with them these sexual connotations about the restrictions. Focus on the sex and forbiddances of it because fo the current circumstances making it almost even more desirable and highlighting its absence.
starting this week i wanted to explore this idea of how my normal routine had been boxed in or interrupted by current restrictions and rules. I thought one way i could pursue this would be through using repeated circular patterns as i think this encompasses ongoing repeated days. I also think it also still produces free flowing easy lines even when layered on top of each other.
Onto of these i then wanted to interrupt the pattern so i experimented using block patterns and stitching into the paper around the shapes as well as holding them together.
Boxed In Printing
I wanted to make a print to represent the 7 weeks we were in official lockdown so decided boxes to represent each of the days layered over free flowing more organic shapes and brush strokes would work well. The contrast to represent the lack of control and the control would work well. It also shows the contrast of flexibly of daily life before in contrast to the 49 days spent in lockdown.
I then used a mix of ink and paint to create free flowing organic shapes and lines.
starting the project i wanted to explore the way we have changed communicating with one another. Thinking about phrases that were not part of my everyday un till covid-19 and will probably continue within our language for the foreseeable future. again as i always want to start with text i feel i exhaust it quite quickly so started sketching screenshots of facetimes, zoom calls and texts i had had over lockdown. Thinking about how all are communication had been done over a screen and was all contained within boxes and rectangles. After exploring this idea of communication i decided to move forward thinking about restrictions and restraints that we have to cooperate with on a daily basis.
Tied up
following on from this idea of being physically restrictive on what we can do and where we can go now, i decided to illustrate this by using neon wire and physically tying myself up. I think the ones that i took in the dark create a very strong image and communicate that the focuses seems to be on the rules and restrictions rather than the person that is being held back (tied up).
boxed in
moving forward with the idea of being constrained i decided to make a wire cage, originally wanting to create a box with 6 sides but to make each side became so time consuming so just ended up making 3 squares and playing around with shape form line and shadow when taking images. I really like working with wire as a material and think id like to continue with this way of working as i feel i could expand on this idea of feeling trapped and caged by these current circumstances.
I also took sketches of my model with the different lighting as well as physically using it to draw, overlapping it and keeping my pen within each of the squares repeatedly. I liked this as it limited my movement to the singular space reflecting the current restrictions and how you can feel like going in circles repeating actions in such a small space.
Moving forward into next week i want to take forward the idea of feeling trapped tied and being restricted by the current covid-19 circumstances.
This drawing i wasn’t happy with so decided to cut it up into strips and re arrange it in a different format and play with the lines and composition a bit. Then broke up the drawing even more by cutting it into smaller parts and again playing around with composition and form. I then began to stick the squares in an arrangement I felt worked better. I think the layering of all the little cubed shapes works well as it added physical texture and depth to the page. I felt this was a good way to start my week as I still wanted to experiment a bit more with materials before making more resolved drawings.
Ink And Free Movement
Rather than controlling the ink which i had done perviously i wanted to allow the colours to mix and move around the page freely so rather than using a paint brush i just pored the ink on and moved the paper around to move the ink. This lack of control made i feel some very interesting shapes as well as a better understating of the media i was using.
Again i felt These shaped spoke of a 3d object or space. Though abstract I also thought they looked almost like dancing figures. The large more bulbed shaped dots where the ink is initially pored onto the page before traveling around or of it i think almost looks limb like.
Drawing With Tape
I decided to experiment with layering and using tape as a medium to create drawings . I again liked the fact that the texture was physical and i was able to take rubbings of it with oil pastel to further enhance it. I also liked the process of physically layering the tape. seeing it build and changing as i added and took away from each of the pieces.
Daily drawing booklet – staring this week i wanted to keep a book where i could collage and draw ontop of any scraps i had lying around and just have something i could do kind of care free when i was feeling stuck or was struggling with a drawing.
I also started with my 10 3D drawings thinking about textures and folding as well as moving drawings.
From these 10 drawings and my daily drawing booklet I went back into 2D and started think about compositions and layering collage into some of my drawings. I also started to consider using colour however this was’t my main focus this week
after reflecting on the drawing i have produced this week i an happy shape wise and composition wise however i think i need to go back and think about depth and texture as i feel these elements are lacking.
CHARLEY MILLAR ART 