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Project Statement

In the first half of this project, through the theme of story, I wanted to explore the idea of generating a dialogue with my landscape; by re-creating the context and narrative of found objects through site specific works. This process-based project allowed me to explore my surroundings through land-art.  For the second half of this project, I responded to three mini projects - Body Meets the Building, Doll Self, and Interruptions. 

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INTERRUPTIONS

Before - During - Aftermath 

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Gathering imagery

Unfurling fuzzy ferns, blemished bark, bloated trees

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' INTERRUPTED '

Outdoor interventions

Finding an arch in a derelict building, I decided to work with wood that was around the space. 

The arch is a doorway: and I wanted to make something that would obstruct it.

I really enjoyed working with only what I could find, and it was a serious test of balance trying to get some of those posts to stand up.

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ARTIST RESEARCH DAVID NASH

(Ash Dome, Ash Stick Chair, Wooden Boulder)

‘Making art outside,’ David Nash explains, ‘is completely different from working inside. In here we’ve got four walls, a flat floor and ceiling. We’ve neutralised the elemental forces. As soon as you go out there, you are dealing with slopes, wind, air, rain. You are in another dimension. You are not necessarily in competition with it, but you are in it.’ Some of his most intriguing creations take the form of utilitarian objects. Ash Stick Chair partly has the shape of a chair but not the exact function. The pieces of ash that form the chair (subsequently cast in bronze) appear to be sprouting twigs, so that it is raised rather precariously off the ground as if on many legs, and the ‘seat’ would be prickly to sit on. Wood, according to Nash, is always either coming or going –  ‘It’s coming as a tree, or going as a dead piece of wood. When we make a table we borrow it out of the cycle, but if we put it outside it will go back into the cycle.’ Ash Dome, a structure woven by Nash from living trees, was a growing thing, constantly coming into existence. Wooden Boulder  was a going thing, Nash carved an spherical chunk from the trunk of a 200-year-old oak using a chainsaw, which then travelled some 15 miles down the River Dwyryd, out into the estuary, where it disappeared in 2015.

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DOLL SELF

(Tights, bubblewrap, cable ties)

Exploring the ideas of fragility and fear. 

It was interesting to work with tights again, but this time by stuffing the tights I felt that it filled the the figure with more poignancy. Taking inspiration from  Magdalena Abakanowicz, I wanted the body language to convey the atmosphere, and decided against adding a head and arms. 

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Doll Self

Sketchbook prep for my doll self sculpture.

I knew I wanted a figure kneeling, I was playing around with the idea of mushrooms / growths, like that Laura Ford.  I think in the end the suggestion with just the cable ties worked really well instead of full on illustrated mushrooms. 

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DOLL SELF

More shots of dried seaweed stipes. I enjoyed playing around with the composition of the figure, I closed off the chest and made it more rib-cagey in this version. 

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Studies of ‘Doll Self’ Sculpture

On a large brown roll of paper, using a long stick of seaweed & some ink , I did some quick blind sketches of my sculpture.

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DOLL SELF Using appropriate materials and processes make a doll (or dolls) which articulate, in a non-illustrative manner, one or more aspects of your self.

Building on the ideas of the sagging tights doll, I wanted to experiment more with different materials. I know my process is largely material driven, and I had some leftover seaweed dried from a previous project. I decided to work with the dried stipes, weaving them and hanging them together to create a frame of a figure, illustrating movement.

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Anthony Gormley, sculptures from “Domains”, “Bodies in Space” and “Apart” at his studio, 2003

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ARTIST RESEARCH

Magdalena Abakanowicz The Backs is a series of 80 life size pieces realized in mixed media (burlap and resin), each sculpture rendering a seated human figure, headless and reduced to a drooping back with short stumps instead of legs. I love how Abakanowicz conveys her message almost entirely through the body language of the sculpture, how the slouched shoulders carry the weight of the world. 

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ARTIST RESEARCH

Francis Upritchard 

I adore Upritchards figurative sculptures, they remind me of driftwood, or the seaweed stipes that I use to weave. There is movement and texture in these pieces that I would love to try and replicate myself. These pieces are huge inspiration for my ‘doll self’.

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ARTIST RESEARCH

Kiki Smith 

Smith began making sculptures and drawings that isolated fluids, veins, skin, bones, sex organs, or hair into self-sufficient fragments. More recently, she has diversified her conceptual and technical approach to figuration, creating life-sized figures in a host of traditional and unconventional materials.

I love the idea of fragmenting the human form for my doll project -- the idea of the organs alone, or nervous system - they are as much part of being human as our outer bodies.

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ARTIST RESEARCH

Laura Ford

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DOLL SELF

15 minute morning sculpture. I had this sketch I did a couple of years ago in my head for some reason. I wanted to capture the sag, the slouch.  I decided to work with tights, as they are pretty easy and quick to manipulate, and used thread and fishing wire to hang and pose the figure. 

I wanted the hang of the head to take focus. 

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YOUR BODY MEETS THE BUILDING Enclosed space in an open space Limits of the physical body // changing perceptions

If I had more time with this project I would love to have created my own audio. I would love to experiment a little bit more with this piece, perhaps bring it outdoors. 

Audio: Gidge - Huldra (lower speed)