finalyearfineart

[finalyearfineart]

Studio Practice 3

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Contextual research 

Studio blog 

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[finalyearfineart]

Some more piliminary sketches and doodles, these were my first sketches for incorporating the plinth into my work.

I’m not sure If I’m actually going to be able to make these without the workshop technicians, I don’t have any tools but I also think this is the direction my work needs to take, I’m want to at least have a go at making a plinth.

I want to play round with the size as well making them too tall or weirdly short just to see how that impact my work.

#studio

[finalyearfineart]

These were the pieces I had an idea for for the longest time, orignally just a sketch I drew during the preassesment I had no idea how to go about making it and there were lots of angles and calculations that hurt my head, trial and error and lots of cardboard mock ups were the key, they still weren’t 100% perfect but they worked and when I go to make some more I will have a better gauge and a few more skills.

I think conceptually these works are really successful in both the tony smith-esq black gloss and in the traditional white

I tried inserting lights into the wings of the black plinth, so it illuminated the quadrant insert, it was sort of successful the was just some light leakage. I was happy with how both old these worked out. And I’m really happy I had a ago a making them, it would have been easy to give up this year , but in the end I have created works I never thought I would be able to do one my own.

This feels like the right direction for my work to take, and I have a lot more ideas about where this could go, I’m confident I can resolve this thought out the next semester

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[finalyearfineart]

I’ve had to but some new tools, in order to be able to make the plinths, it’s a serious step up, but I’m excited to see what I can make, I am currently working on a tall plinth and obelisk like monument,

I wanted to be tall about eye level to make the viewer uncomfortable.

It wasn’t to difficult to construct but I could definitely see what needed Improving when I finished it, I’ll take this onboard for the next plinth I make, I’m impressed with how well it worked out I couldn’t construct it in my garage because there wasn’t enough room to lay it down but other than that it was relative simple,

It’s night gave it the described effect it is just really awkward to look at and when the pyramid is placed on top you do have to really step back in order to see it,

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[finalyearfineart]

Brancusi:

I have been researching Brancusi for my dissertation but with the direction my work has taken it think he is more relevant to my work then a had first thought. His endless columns, put forward the idea of the plinth as the art object itself, some of his earlier works ‘fish’ or many of the renditions of ‘bird in space’ need there bases, to complete the work, yes structurally but also conceptually, they are just a part of the work, this made more obvious in some of his versions pictured by his choice to use the same material. Brancusi is famed for how He has been able to convey motion, and the ‘essence’ of the subjects he choose to sculpt.

What is seen in the endless column is the plinths own agency, normally reserved for it occupants bestowed upon itself. In a humours way it was unable to do so, so needed itself to occupy it, and that plinth in turn needed to grant its agency to itself again and hence the endlessness. Brancusi’s work endures, even now his work is painfully original, he has been able to create in the endless column a motif that is truly his own.

This is what I wanted to pick up on I have put a lot of work into my motif, the pyramidal structure. This year I really want to push the possibilities, Brancusi’s propensity to rework his sculptures is all the assurance I need, that I’m able to progress my work while reworking it.

#contextualresearch

[finalyearfineart]

Sol lewitt:

Lewitt’s sculpture is the most interesting to me,

‘Incomplete open cubes’ (1974) the simple and refined nature of his not fully formed cubes especially when presented altogether create a feeling like they are in the middle downloading, but they were created before the internet, so maybe just loading, the process appears to be clear in these works the are clearly mathematical, inexcusably so, and this not fully formed grid begins to appear. Whilst incomplete they are still stable.

Another work that was particularly interested me in relation to my work is ‘Three-Part Variations on Three Different Kinds of Cubes’ (1967-69) these painted polystyrene structures formal and clean cubes stacked into a tower with these opposite sides removed, to create unusual furniture like objects plinth like again the seem like the should perform a service of some kind, like Judd’s shelf like structures, this is something I have been struggling with in my own work, because my structures feels like it should be occupied I feel inclined to put something in it. But here are two examples of how when left empty the work is still successful.

#contextualresearch

[finalyearfineart]

I painted some of the wobbly quadrants and some of the first clay module I made white, I just had extra paint left out and wanted to use it up, I thought about painting them white when I first made them. And I have finally got round to it I’m happy with the result, they do sort of look like used napkins but I don’t hate that, they a quite soft and more feminine than the harsher straight cut ones, but I do think they look good in white to, the appear a lot more finished to me than when it was the terracotta clay colour

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[finalyearfineart]

Jane Rosen:

https://thelittlegallery.wordpress.com/newsletters/jane-rosen-the-morandi-series/

an established artists and teacher Rosen works predominantly in glass and stone. The Morandi series focuses of birds, nature being a big components of her practice Rosen’s sculptural ensembles creates these allegories through “intense and daily observations of nature” Rosen is able to harness natures features and turn them into “into forms that are emotive”

Rosen describes her Morandi series (pictured)

“For me, Morandi speaks to surface and the illusion of form; the relationship of landscape time and domestic time.  He speaks of surface and the relationships of forms. To create a still life by setting up casual sculptural elements” I think her consciousness when it comes to how the material can impact a piece of work is not to be over looked. The stone here carves out its pace in the exhibition space and creates a perch for her birds or the bird like silhouettes created by her hand-blown glass vases. The stone pillars sometimes carved perfectly others left with the chisel marks or cracked and unfinished edges, this emblematic of there origins, Rosen careful not to lose the natural touch of the stone.

#contextual research

[finalyearfineart]

Some clay maquettes I have made.

I have started to explore some more abstract forms I have been researching minimalist sculpture some more, clay allows you to work though ideas quickly and I found that quite useful, there are also few limitations, I had never worked with clay before and I orignally bought some real clay but my local pottery place where you can hire a kiln colsed due to COVID so I couldn’t actually use it, I bought some are drying clay and it worked really well, I think I need some more practice, but even in the time I was working with it I could see improvements

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[finalyearfineart]

Carl Andre:

Maybe one of the most well-known artists of minimalist sculpture,

Last ladder (1959) a wooden structure it appears as a rusty pole. In the reclaimed wooden fence post Andre has carved out would be footholds the zigzag in and out Identical in size and depth the five indentations the only cleaned up bit of the wood. The rest left in its original state. Andre realised when he finished this work that ‘the wood was better before I cut it than after. I did not improve it in any way’.

His work is repetitive and solid there is a rhythm to his them, only achievable in the scale at which his works are made. He has portioned out these identical wooden railway sleepers, arranging them on site he wanted to eliminate all signs of fabrication.

In some works, the influence of Brancusi is a lot clear, ‘wood saw-cut exercise’ (1958) for example.

#contextualresearch

[finalyearfineart]

Donald Judd:

Another minimalist

His structural and repetitive forms

Bright colours and a Varity of materials, his forms all relate and translate into each other

As the brain tries to resolve what it is seeing many appear to resemble draws or shelves

Untitled (1968) The polished brass box placed on the floor, it reflects the room back at the viewer. it is solid and grounded piece it demands attention without making a fuss, its authority secured by its clear cut angular sides. The sunken top is an interesting feature it disrupts the refection it projects and draws down the viewers eye again.

Order and discipline were driving factors of his work,  his ‘stacks’ for example, needed to be installed following the rule that the gap between each piece needed to be exactly the same size as the height of a single piece, untitled (1980) is an example of this, these rule based instillations are interesting, the disallow the curator of any exhibition wanting to show his work, any agency over how his work is displayed, this control means Judd still holds the power over his work. Materiality here plays a big part in how his art works; the direct and clinical structures are broken down with pops of colour.

#contextualresearch

[finalyearfineart]

Tony Smith:

A pioneer of American minimalism

Smith a carpenter and brick layer he became an architect

Best known for his large scale black forms, His work has been described as “neither a monument nor an object” he has created these surreal forms that doing nothing but sit where they have been placed. Size was important to smith he felt that the relationship between his work and its surroundings was what captured the meaning of his work.

Smith’s work is simple but with this simplicity they demand authority they have nothing to hide behind. Fully accessible on all sides but the ones they sit on. Free ride (1962) made from painted steel, is a made form three rectangles making to L shapes one stood and one laying down, both L’s share the central rectangle, this piece made quite accidently “Putting the boxes down on the table, I strung them end to end along the three axes. When alone, I took another look and decided to have it fabricated.” His architectural forms are unnatural in ever setting the neutrality of the gallery in theory should quell this unease but due to their vast size they still fit uncomfortably.

#contextual research

[finalyearfineart]

Carla Cascales

http://carlacascales.com

a little known contemporary artist, there isn’t a lot of writing on her, but I think it is important to keep up to date with your contemporary her work is incredibly skilful, her forms minimal and refined. She seems to have a masterful use of materials.

Her work is visually very appealing to me.

#studio

[finalyearfineart]

The studios have closed so I’m stuck in the garage, if I carry on working in clay it should be fine, but I have been thinking about making some more structural works I want to incorporate the plinth into my work I did a few small sketches and I quite like the look,

Just playing around with what is and isn’t a plinth, I think I might take some photos just to realise a few of my ideas.

#studio

[finalyearfineart]

I read this one morning not really thinking about my work or research, rather, just reading about an utterly absurd occurrence the retaliation to the BLM protests last year saw a lot of horrible and very evil arguments rear the ugly heads, but the really came to head at a rally held at the cenotaph, they came to argue that you couldn’t pull statues down because of their historical importance there rallying call being that you especially can even think about removing the statue of Winston Churchill because he won the second world war, the argued this point by doing Nazi salutes at the cenotaph. This complete inversion of reality is really the epitome of our modern world. I’m interested in memorials and monuments, so I do like to keep up to date with the arguments around the removal of problematic statues. My dissertation is starting to look into this a lot more. But this occurrence was especially bizarre to me. Satire is dead.

#contextualresearch

[finalyearfineart]

Wine and milk

To traditional offerings

I really like how these turned out it was more of what I imagined, I think the glasses really complimented the acrylic structures, the wine and milk stand out but are contained within the triangles.

I like how this worked out but again it’s not quite it, I think I’m going to have to drop it, the structures work well enough on there own if not better.

#studio

[finalyearfineart]

Some more photography, of the traditional offering honey, pomegranate and a candle

I like these more than the then the first round the are less distracting I’m not sure if that is because I photographed them indervidualy or because they are better. But still I’m not this is exactly what I wanted or expecting

#studio