Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Axe

I began thinking about how the way my sculpture is placed will completely alter the experience of viewing it, and how I could use this to my advantage to create a more interesting, dynamic piece that will encourage the audience to move around it.

I started thinking about the pieces of work I have created and photographed so far. They are heavy on one side rather than balanced. Example:


A majority of the nature is strictly on the left side, leaving the right half untouched and innocent. I could quite literally shatter this image and turn it away from the audience, so that they do not see it unless they move around it.


^
From this angle, all you can see is the beauty of nature emerging from her head.

But here there is nothing interesting to see.
v


I placed her on this piece of wood for experimental purposes, but realised that it looks a lot like her head is on a chopping block.
This is a strong metaphor, especially since I view this woman as a personification of Mother Nature. It fits the idea that we as humans are abusive to nature.

I thought that to play on this idea, I could slam an axe into her throat on the right side. 


front view


right side view



left side view (the axe is completely hidden from this side and it is nothing but beautiful flowers)


This would add a shock factor to the piece, and a surprising flare of brutality. Surprising to the point that it even surprises me that I am considering it, but I am already completely enthralled with the idea!

My mannequin has a strangely long neck. I can only assume that this is due to women's odd beauty standards, but I think it will work to my advantage. The mannequin is tall, lean, and flowers and leaves are emerging from her head. Because of this, she could almost resemble a tree, which makes the idea of "cutting her down" with an axe even more interesting.



VERY Long Neck, a very large canvas for destroying



I acquired an axe first - I thought it would have been too small for what I needed it for, but it turned out to be perfectly proportionate. 




I first intended to swing the blade of the axe directly into the mannequin's neck, in order to capture genuine motion and passion.



I discovered rather quickly that this would not work. I placed the mannequin in a vice to keep her still, but on the lead up to the swing, I was informed by a fellow classmate (with much more experience than myself) that the blade was far too dull, and the mannequin was far too tough to achieve a clean slice.

Also, it was incredibly dangerous to be swinging an axe around indoors, around ceramics and other people. So, I aborted the idea for health and safety reasons.

Instead, I mock-swung the axe towards the mannequin without actually striking, and made a dent in the paint where the blade WOULD have hit.



This way, the motion of the axe is genuine, and all I have to do is create a clean line for the axe to slot into (theoretically/in an ideal world).

Then, I put her in a vice and SAFELY used a saw to create the slit.



I kept sawing until I broke the "skin", and then began to forcefully push the axe into the slit to get an idea of how big it needed to be.





I'm going to need to spraypaint her again to neaten up the places that the paint have broken, but that is not an issue.



The blade fits nicely into the neck, but the handle is far too long and noticeable. Also, the sharp edge of the axe is a health and safety issue.

To combat this, I came up with the idea of creating a plaster axe to take its place.

To do this, I made a vinyl mould of the axe using a vacuum powered machine. The thick white vinyl is first heated, and then the air is removed from the chamber to cause the plastic to fix snugly around the axe.



A perfect mould was created.
The only issue was, that the top of the axe had a dip in it that made it incredibly difficult to remove the axe in one piece. The vinyl mould cracked when I removed it. But this was not a problem, as I simply filled in the crack with a grape's worth of clay.



Then, I mixed up some plaster and poured it into the mould.


Unfortunately, when I tried to remove it, the plaster broke, and the "axe" split at the handle.
I understand why it did, and it was a little bit inevitable, because there is a dip in the top of the axe that made the original axe difficult to remove from the mould, let alone a delicate plaster replica.
The pieces fit back together nicely, so if I wanted to, I could easily put them back together.

But, as I experimented:




I decided it was a good thing that the plaster axe broke, in the end. The axe handle would have been too much of a statement if attached, and would have been difficult to conceal behind the flowers on the left hand side.

I was going for subtly, so in fact, it has worked in my favour that the handle broke.

Especially because the break was organic and seems natural. If I had to cut the plaster manually the outcome would have been very different, but I feel that this way, it appears that the axe handle has broken off with the impact of a harsh swing as it hit the mannequin's neck.


I used a sharpened stanley knife to carve away at the gash in the neck I had created.
Tiny bit by tiny bit, until it was wide enough to jam the plaster axe head in enough that it would stay by itself.

Then I added copious amounts of hot glue to really make sure that it would not budge.



This worked perfectly. The axe was NOT moving anymore, but now I had a very ugly yellow dripping stain under it.
But this was alright, because I knew I could spraypaint it again later.

Now that the axe was secured, I added some flowers to experiment with the composition.


Front view. ^


Left hand view. ^ The axe is perfectly concealed by the nature from this angle, which is exactly what I was going for.

Right side view. ^               But from this side, you can see the axe, and it creates a stark, confusing contrast.



I didn't like the way that I arranged the flowers, this time.I much preferred the way I preferred them in this image.
v
(this image is from before the axe/extra holes were added)
I will be using this as inspiration for when I attach the flowers permanently.

Meanwhile, I removed the flowers and spraypainted the whole thing.
This removed any scuffs, scratches or marks made by the process of adding the axe. It also masked the yellow of the hot glue, and I made sure to spray any remaining "flesh tone" plastic, to give it that completely "ceramic" white and shiny appearance.






Polystyrene Plant Pot - Gaia 3017

Original head + Concept Sketch

I decided to go full steam ahead with the idea of making one of my mannequin heads into a plant pot.


This head was originally meant to be the one I used as a plant pot, but since I came across its ability to conduct light, I decided I couldn't!

So instead I'm using this one. 
I followed the same steps using the hot wire tool to hollow out the head.


Unfortunately, this feminine head was much smaller and much more delicate than the male head, meaning I accidentally punctured a hole in the back of her neck which I fixed with duct tape and clay.

Since I was planning on planting a living, breathing plant inside the head, I placed a plastic bag inside the head to line it and make it waterproof. I pierced a hole in the bottom of the bag and polystyrene to let it drain of water and secured everything with hot glue.




I wanted to spraypaint the whole head in order to make it waterproof, and to make the duct tape and hot glue blend in.

I had initially thought white spraypaint, but I ran out of that. So I used black.

The moment I sprayed it, the polystyrene began to warp and react to the paint, as if it was dissolving. I was horrified!

There was nothing I could do to save it apart from wait for it to dry.




Once she was dry, I thought about throwing her in the bin and starting again. The polystyrene had reacted to the black spraypaint, making it become horribly porous. It looked like her face had been decaying for years. She was barely recognisable and I was very upset!

Despite this, I pressed on.


I planted my plant into her head. The soil and plant combined were much heavier than I anticipated, and I was worried that the base of the head would crumble under the weight. Luckily it didn't. But I had to be sure to balance it right.



The plant is beautiful. I specifically chose an unusually coloured plant to create contrast and interest. The leaves are naturally pink! Despite this, the outcome was very underwhelming and I was a bit upset!

To combat this, I experimented with my wigs again.



I cut a slit down the back of the wig to allow the plant to "grow" through it. This gave the piece much more character immediately, and all of a sudden, I felt great affection towards her. As if the wig brought her to life.




I toyed with the idea of how to display her.

I placed her on the corner of a square podium, facing away from the entrance of the room so that her face is concealed, and the hair flows down the side of the box. This gives an air of enigma, as the viewer cannot see her face at first glance.

The moment I stepped back from her, I immediately felt sorry for her. This may be due to my own attachment to the mannequin head, and the guilt that I carry for having destroyed her face with the spray paint, but I feel that any viewer could see her as pitiable. She looks very small alone in a big room, and very vulnerable.
Looking at this sculpture makes me feel very sad.

I enjoy the way that the hair is rather elegant and beautiful (albeit a mess), and hides the majority of the woman's ugly face. It is as if she is hiding from the viewer. And yet, despite the fact that she is ugly and seems to think so, something beautiful is growing from her head.

This sculpture could be seen to be a metaphor for Mother Nature/Gaia and how she has decayed over time. There is no vivid colour, whereas traditionally, representations of Gaia are incredibly colourful and tropical. Instead of using brightness, flowers, foliage and colours, (the ideal, romantic representations of nature) this version of Gaia is black and grey. This could suggest the ill health of our Earth, and personify the pollution we have brought to it. Her long grey hair could personify smog/smoke, whereas the black decay on her face could represent an oil spill and the hardships that we have brought to the face (literal face) of our Earth.

Despite all this, the plant continues to grow from her head, which is a credit to how hard she is working to sustain us.
(A metaphor, and a wake up call to alert us as humans of how hard the Earth is working to sustain us, when all we do is take from it and destroy it.)

It could also be an interesting idea that perhaps this sculpture is a personification of Earth after humans have left it, battered, bruised and used beyond belief, and only now can nature begin to grow from it again and reclaim it.


The outline of the mannequin's small nose and plump lips are still visible. They suggest youth, innocence and underlying beauty, despite the poor state of her skin.




I also experimented with the idea of turning her away from the viewer completely, to face the wall. As if she was ashamed.
The viewer would have to travel around the sculpture in order to see her face. They may expect the face to be beautiful, as such a beautiful plant is growing from the head. They may then be shocked to see the state of her face, being porous and black.

I am interested in this idea of facing her away from my viewers, perhaps in the furthest corner of the room, but allowing room for them to travel around it. I enjoy the idea of making people move to see my art, making viewing it into an experience for multiple senses, processes and emotions (1, confusion, 2, intrigue, 3 surprise, 4 pity, 5 guilt)


I'm not sure what I would name this piece, but I know that it would have to be meaningful and suggestive towards the theme.

It's commonly discussed that humans only have a "set number" of years left until environmental disaster strikes.
Stephen Hawking says we have less than 1000 years left on Earth.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/13/stephen-hawking-humans-have-less-than-1000-years-left-on-earth-3614602/

Maybe it would be fitting, in this case, to call this sculpture:
"Gaia 3017"