susannaspatialart-objectand-blog

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 5: TIME & MOTION/CHANGE

Extension Task. To try and further this weeks homework task I tried carving into half a lime when it was still quite fresh to then see what happens over a few days. 

There was a bit of change over 3 days, the edges became brown and dry and the white carved paths started to yellow. 

I think I could have done a lot more with this if I’d had the time. I could have tried a few different fruits to see how they decay differently over time. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 5: TIME & MOTION/CHANGE

Extension Task. I wanted to try working with natural materials for my extension task in particular the way things decay and change when they are dying. I have lots of palm trees at home and they are easily woven into objects so I cut some branches and spent a while just trying to weave different things. I then eventually settled on a woven/braided branch and a flower made out of the palm leaves. I then left them to sit and see what happened over the course of a week. 

I was a bit disappointed with the results as they didn’t decay at the rate I expected. They retained their green though they did get more brittle. 

I spoke to Sharon about it at the review in week 6 and she suggested that I try using different plant matter or that I work with the qualities of the material. For example if it gets more brittle would it lose its strength? Going to try something else on top of what I’ve done so far. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 5: TIME & MOTION/CHANGE In class collaborative task. Video of action parts of the piece. Each test has been sped up slightly in this video or is a timelapse

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 4: INTERVAL AND SPACE In Class Collaborative Work. This video shows how our piece moved in the wind and also how people move throw the intervals between the bamboo and why the negative space is important and also shows me cutting the bamboo down at the end

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 5: TIME & MOTION/CHANGE

(video in another post that shows the action based parts of the work)

In Class Collaborative Task. Li-En and I worked together again for the Time & Motion/Change piece. This time we had pallet 3 which had black plastic, rocks and wooden stakes. 

We wondered how much weight the black plastic could hold and whether it would break if we put all the rocks onto it and how long it would take. So we devised a way to suspend the plastic between some fence railings and our wooden stakes and used twine to attach it. It was tricky to get the stakes to stand up and the result was a very precious balanced structure (see first clip in video which shows the swaying of the piece). It swayed gently and reminded me of the rigging and sails on a ship. Then Li-en suggested that instead of just pouring all the rocks onto it that we throw them one at a time onto it and see what happens. 

Each time you threw a rock onto the plastic it would sway a bit more and the rocks rolled off onto the ground due to the slight downward angle of the plastic. it took quite a while for it to fall down the first time so next we got some friends to join us and we threw handfuls rather then just single stones. We repeated this process over and over again and each time the plastic fell in a different direction and took a different amount of time to fall. We also adjusted the way the stakes were placed and even crossed the plastic over. 

We noticed that when it fell to the right it always fell in the same spot and the stones became a big pile on the ground (we left the stones where they fell every time, we didn’t move any). But on the left it was a much more random and scattered pile of stones. 

After aout 8 tries of throwing the stones we decided to try tipping what was left in the bucket in one go. The plastic reacted differently again. 

After that we wondered what would happen if we poured water instead of rocks. So we filled the bucket and tried doing the in different ways too. We also tried tearing a hole in the plastic to see if the water would go down there instead of off the end. 

As we worked we realised that the piece wasn’t just about the act of throwing rocks onto the plastic but also about how the space changed as time went on as more and more rocks were on the ground and the later with the addition of water. 

It would be interesting to see how this piece would work in a gallery up against a white wall where the rocks would leave marks when you threw them and would be more visible on the floor. 

The video I have posted shows the process we went through as a time lapse. 

There was also a couple of times when the twine ripped through the plastic so we had to retie it up. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 5: TIME & MOTION/CHANGE

Artist: Brad Litwin

Title: ‘The Sway of Public Opinion’

Year: 2007

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 4: INTERVAL & NEGATIVE SAPCE

Homework Task. I felt in my experimentation for this task that the bamboo sticks and the mirror where the most powerful elements, so I decided to remove all the distracting things and just play with them. So I tried arranging the sticks in a few different ways and photographing them in the mirror. 

The interesting thing about using the mirror is that everything within the mirror become spat of the work, not just the reflections of the bamboo. So what would be seen as unimportant background becomes negative space that is integral to the piece when viewed in the mirror. 

I also tried moving the mirror backwards and photographing it in such a way that you can’t see the actually bamboo sticks but only there refection. This was really interesting and I’d be interested in exploring this further sometime. 

Then I added a whole lot more sticks and moved the mirror back close to the work and tried photographing it from different angles. The negative space in this work is in the intervals between the sticks but more importantly its everything that is then reflected in the mirror.

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 4: INTERVAL & NEGATIVE SPACE

Homework Task- Experimentation. I struggled a bit with this weeks homework task but that seems to have resulted in a lot more experimentation then in previous weeks. I started out using the pieces of bamboo from the piece Li-en and I did in class. And I tried rearranging them in different ways and adding different materials to try and create interesting negative space. But I felt like this was all too messy and seemed to be too focused on the materials and forms then on the negative spaces. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 1: LINEAR & MOVEMENT

Further extension. I revisited my work from week 1 to try and incorporate a second material rather than just the metal. I added a different type of string/twine to each of my pieces trying to copy the shapes and lines of the metal. This worked quite well for the triangular and square ones but not so much in the circular one. 

The shadows - like the sculptures - have become more complex with the addition of string. I particularly like the shadow being cast by the sphere, it appears very globe like as the lines seem to show longitude and latitude (perhaps this is something that could be explored in my independent project)

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 4: INTERVAL & NEGATIVE SPACE

In class work. I really enjoyed the task in this weeks class. It was good to get the chance to collaborate with a friend on a piece. I also enjoyed the challenge of being forced to use only the materials provided on the pallet. We really liked the curve in the bamboo sticks and wanted to keep at least one of them whole. Our piece engaged with the negative space in a number of ways. Firstly in the intervals between the hanging pieces on bamboo, this was both in a vertical and horizontal sense as there was a sense of interval between the vertical pieces and the horizontal bamboo that it hung from. You could then walk through the work as the negative space was part of the work. Using a very thin white thread to hang them created this almost invisible effect and the resulting work had a very delicate, fragile and fluid composition. Because of where we situated the work the bamboo form was reflected in the glass windows. This created another interesting negative space in that the area between the bamboo and its refection became part of the work, a kind of passage/walkway between them. (might want to try using reflections in my extension work). There was also a silhouette negative space in the area above the bamboo where there was nothing. The site was really important in this work. The very heavy and solid nature of the two white posts on either side contrasted with delicate and fluid nature of the bamboo. The bamboo pieces hanging down, although delicate seemed to pull the piece towards the ground adding a sense of gravity, this was emphasised by the one bamboo stick that was actually touching the ground at the bottom. 

The shadows cast by the sticks created important negative space between the work and the shadows. The shadows became part of the work. 

We noticed something interesting with the pieces of bamboo when they were just sitting randomly on the concrete bench waiting for us to hang up. The unintended arrangement had a really interesting use of negative space and initial in the very random way they were sitting there. We then tried to replicate that when they were hanging. 

Finally when we were taking it down to pack up I walked along and just cut all the threads that were attaching them to the main stick. They fell randomly on the floor creating a new iteration in our work in the new negative space created between them and the main stick and the intervals between them as they lay on the ground. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 4: RESEARCH TASK

Artist: Glen Payce

Title: Alumina

Year: 2008

In this piece the negative space is clearing the main point of focus in the work. Although the physical forms of the vases/columns are interesting and necessary the figure like forms created in between them are more important. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 3: VOLUME AND PROPORTION

Extension work. For my extension work I tried adding white paint to one or two faces of the blocks of wood. I feel the white paint was hard to see against the paleness of the wood. Perhaps it would work better with black paint (might create a “void”). Then I tried my other idea. I want to create a piece that focused on the idea of a nesting volume. I wasn't sure how I wanted to attach the wood to the dowel so I drew some concepts. Decided to try just attaching the dowel by drilling holes in the wood squares. I liked the simplicity of this after it was done, I feel that adding dowels on the corners of the wood would have distracted from the central dowel. I also painted sections of the wood to create a step like feeling drawing the viewers attention up the piece, this also helped link it with my first sculpture. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 3: VOLUME & PROPORTION

In class work. Had a couple of ideas I wanted to explore after watching the module. Decided to start with this one. It began as a simple structure that had a single vertical axis and was very symmetrical in design. Sharon suggested I try changing the axis part way up to add more volume and interest. So i just tried changing the axis in as many ways as I could. They were still all vertical but now instead of one piece that moves symmetrically up and down it became a multidimensional piece that requires the viewer to walk around it in order to see every face. I was playing with proportions in the different size of the blocks and also in the contrast between the thing round dowels and the thicker blocks of wood. I want to try and add some interest using paint for my extension and also try my other idea.

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 3 RESEARCH TASK

Artist: Andy Goldsworthy

Title: Untitled (from the Polar Vortex series)

Year: N/A

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 2: RESEARCH TASK

Artist: Jacy Johnson

Title: Linear/Planar

Year: 2013

I was drawn to this artwork as I felt it showed both the planar and balance aspects of this weeks focus. The way the cardboard rectangles are precariously suspended on the white string gives a sense of uncertain and unsteady balance. I also liked seeing how linear and planar material can work together in a piece.

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 2: PLANAR & BALANCE

Extension work. I felt it needed something on the other side of the acrylic to take away the feeling of front and back and to encourage the viewer to move around the entirety of the work. So I added another piece of steel this time a curved piece rather than an angular one just to mix things up. This was good but the surface of the steel was kind of boring aesthetically plus it had a similar surface texture to the acrylic. So I added some texture by stippling the metal pieces. The piece had a very architectural feel to it and I felt it needed to be pushed further so I thought I would try adding another material. I added the astroturf to one side of the acrylic and I feel like it took my piece from a very abstract form to a more real sculpture. Would be interesting to see this on a much larger scale. Think it would be quite an interesting installation on either grass (so that the whole thing seems to rise out of the ground) or on concrete which would contrast with the metal and the grass. 

[susannaspatialart-objectand-blog]

WEEK 2: PLANAR & BALANCE

In class work. Spent a lot of time working the form of the acrylic and seeing how I could change it while trying to balance it on its end. Then tried working with the steel to make some kind of counter lever. Placing it on its points rather than flat surfaces made it seem more precarious and better showed the idea of balance.