Glass, earth, clay, plants, 41H x 60L x 10W cm.
The last work was a logical continuation of the previous one, where some aspects of work became important for me:
1. not a direct image of a person with a phone, but a demonstration of the situation through the material
2. identifying material specific to my theme
3. silhouette, shape and material combination creates a narrative
Glass is an integral part of any screen through which we perceive information these days. At the same time, there is no element of naturalness. For the current task, I needed to use clay. So I decided to contrast it with glass. Clay is an element of soil, alive, natural, and glass is a recycled, rethought product of human activity. It is solid, unyielding, without essence, letting any image pass through itself.
It was at this moment that I was reading Susan Byatt's novella «Morpho Eugenia» in her book Angels and Insects. William Adamson, one of the main characters of the novel, builds a glasshouse for a colony of ants for experiments and observations. This moment prompted me to a similar experience, to try to recreate a semblance of the world behind glass, similar to how we perceive through a computer phone or telephone.
As in the novel, the researchers worked in the garden, I went out into nature in search of something that could embody a life. I thought to use leaves and plants, but they would dry out over time and here it would rather be a process of decay and death than a process of development and life.
Then I decided to use earth with plants, such a kind of glass flower pot. But in my case, it should have been a screen similar to the phone screen.
In the beginning, I placed the ground between two prepared pieces of glass and fixed it with the clay on the sides. But such a structure was difficult to move and one side would be hidden due to technical problems of the exposition. Moreover, in the process of moving one glass cracked. Although it looked like a broken phone, technically the entire sculptural composition fell into disrepair.
Then I decided to build a living wall. In any case, when we hold the phone, we feel one side of it, that is, there is a tactile sensation. Therefore, in my sculpture, I decided to leave prints of the work of my hands. Each piece of clay reflects this process, my touch.
As a result, I am extremely happy with this particular work. This is such a kind of live screen.
We can observe the roots of plants as they pass through the ground. Movement and seepage of water into the most retired areas. Insects caught in a work of art accidentally compliment it and give it an authentic character. This experiment can be developed further, for example, to improve the movement and form of clay on the sides of the glass, strengthen the attachment of the clay on the glass, and more.
The viewer may have associations with a geological section of the earth's layers or the experiments of biologists in a polytechnic museum, but is the task of art, not such an outcrop of the surface to reveal the essence?
After rethinking this piece I thought I can rework the shape of the clay in a way that it corresponds with grass on top.
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