The choice of material remains a huge question for me.
Now is April 2020. The world is undergoing new grandiose changes in all areas of activity. People are forced to be limited in their movements, and sometimes even they are locked at home. Starting a new course in sculpture, I managed to buy only cement and some other materials before the lockdown.
Therefore, the first attempts to select materials turned to the search for this material itself. As I already wrote in a previous post, my thoughts came to the use of plastic, since my chosen topic is directly and indirectly related to plastic. But I have a huge discontent with the work done.
And the first paragraph of the Assessment criteria, in my opinion, remains poorly developed from my side. The materials that I used for the first part of the course were improvised. This is what I found at home. I did not change the structure of the plastic, I did not work with its direct form. Like, for example, these artists:
Kwang Chun Young
Kwang Chun Young 2017 Aggregation 17-NV089 Mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 184.8 x 162 cm. [Sculpture] At: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/kwang_young_chun (Accessed 14.04.2020)
Gleb Skubachevsky
Глеб Скубачевский, Артефакт №1 © Askeri Gallery [Sculpture] At: https://www.askerigallery.com/artists/gleb-skubachevskiy/ (Accessed 14.04.2020)
In my opinion, the technique is very similar to each other. Take and "twist", fold, give a different shape to the material and then bring out a new large shape. There are many similar examples. But, I'm not sure how such a preliminary work with the material will complement my work with context? Anyway, I'll try this option. I will rework the latest piece which is a freestanding sculpture.
And, in the end, plastic is not pleasant to perceive. This material is frightening because it is not natural and constitutes a danger for nature. But how, then, the phone, TV, computer which are made of plastic, but these devices have become the most popular on our planet? (in fact, what we see is half plastic, half display).
The appearance of the work has become very commercial and glossy. Baudrillard wrote about media that it is provoking and shapes our consciousness and not vice versa. Therefore, the works of the above artists contain innovation in their approach, they are decorative and sell well but is it really "free mind creation" or these art objects are intended to be bestsellers? So I'm going to try this also? Twist the plastic wick into a knot, paint it and stick on the structure.
Maybe I could to combine such a technique with the historically established technique of sculpture. For example, Nelly Schmücking brings together various techniques in one work, which looks very emotional.
Nelly Schmücking, Löwe #1 und #2, 2018/19, Privatbesitz, © Künstlerin, Foto: PUNCTUM/Alexander Schmidt [Sculpture] At: https://www.leipziginfo.de/veranstaltungen/event/nelly-schmuecking-5729/11059/ (Accessed 14.04.2020)
The presentation of the work, my creativity and research are not really presented well, unfortunately, since all my attention was focused on the amazing changes taking place in the World over the past month. I see great potential in this process and puzzle over what exactly is happening and where it will lead us.
This video struck me
We are on the way to something new. The world will not be the same after COVID-19. While we are forced to hide at home, we begin to live and create in the online world. A live orchestra plays online from the private apartments of the musicians. Here is a violinist in his small apartment and on the background is a shelf with books, here is a trumpeter in his basement, he is probably very loud for neighbours, and here is a flute player, she is in her kitchen and on the wall photographs of children and family.
In other conditions, we would never recognize these people working in the national orchestra of France. Through isolation in the twenty-first century, we became no further from each other, but closer. Details of the life of people which previously seemed were unnecessary and impossible now are revealed. If earlier only celebrities published photos and videos of their interiors, now ordinary teachers conduct online lessons from their apartment in real conditions.
Is it possible to say that the world has become cleansed and become more truthful? Or in trouble, when people were captured by the situation, society as a whole seeks to unite and support each other. The weight of the personality became clear and weighty on the example of this orchestra performance. But also, after all, we see these people through the camera, that is, as before, this is a somewhat distorted perception of the person opposite us on a screen.
I hope that in the next part of the course I will be able to advance with my thoughts deeper in the context.
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