I was really excited about the brief as it has lots of scope, from the beginning I knew we were going to be doing some life drawing so I used that alongside anatomy research as a starting point. I wanted to improve my drawing skills and envisioned maybe something quite illustrative initially for a final outcome. However I was also looking into, religion, symbolism, psychology and memory
So I feel I was walking quite a wobbly line and found it quite difficult to focus in on one idea initially, this was good in the way that it led to a lot of experimentation with subject and materials, however as it was quite a short project, in hindsight it would have been more beneficial to the final outcome to have focused in a little earlier to have time to make a more realised final piece.
I had an idea of decorating the body and the body as decoration, looking at tattooing fruit as an extension of the life drawing. That gave me the idea to then make a vessel for the fruit, a bowl in ceramics. I was also working with an image that I sketched from the body book of a naked, seated woman viewed from behind. I developed that sketch into a mirror image design within a circle and made a lino cut. I would say this work was really the key piece in the project in terms of moving it on and fixing on a media. It was pushing forward the idea of symmetry and decoration into a more stylised image.
Along side this I was looking at the Rorschach test images and making my own experiments, this led to the womb like abstract which in turn led to the pelvis and then I worked them all together into these lino cut, repetitive, decorative designs.
Looking at more symmetrical body parts, I started thinking about lungs and made a two block lung design. I used the lung on fabric as its representative of the function of a lung to be hung near a window, letting in air, wheres the pelvis bone form was printed on the wall as a gesture of its structural function.
This all developed into the idea of your body being your home. To me that's a feeling of comfort and sometimes a feeling of claustrophobia, depending on my state of mind.
I'm interested in working with lino so I pushed myself to make largest piece than I've ever tried. It was time consuming and physical, I enjoyed the process and found it quite meditative. It was important to me to hand make this, as the process is part of its story.
I've learned a lot about lino technique and feel confident to push this further in future projects. Id like to try a multi block print to build up colour in a large scale series of prints. This is something that requires a lot of planning and reverse way of visualising and planning the task.
In terms of my final outcome, essentially I was creating a space, a room, an idea of a body abstracted as a form of decoration, its bright and clean and slightly retro in its effect, not at all gory.
I was thinking also of the space in a doctors waiting room or a hospital ward with a curtain drawn around it. The idea of taking a image and repeating it and abstracting it to make it into something else, the symmetrical shapes from a distance, I think look like butterflies, really I was just trying to create a curious space that questions the anatomical body, how a human spills out to fill a space with their presence in ways that are beyond the physical.
within this space I've showcased the ceramic bowl and plate and the tattooed orange, these are displayed as relics inside the room yet they are of outward human forms. Its a contrast in media, form and aesthetic. looking like relics, aged and weathered within the bright environment of the prints.
I had wanted to add more curtains with perhaps eyes or kidney prints on. Had I more time to develop further, I could have made many additions to create more of a room.
Im really pleased with the curtain and the ceramic bowl. I've learned a lot of little techniques with the printing and ceramics to grow my continence and feel I have really pushed myself in terms of physical work as I really just wanted to see how these prints would look large scale and that was very motivating.
Comments
Post a Comment