This month has been a proper UP and DOWN in my practice. UP because I have been pleased with the reception of “La Mujerzuela (The floozy)” from people. I know that there is more potential in playing with these objects and that keeps my imagination going. The Floozy has been accepted onto the MA & Other Postgraduates 2014 show early next year and she is very excited to go to Somerset for a month. It will be a good start of the year, hopefully it will continue like this.
I have also had my first group crit this month. I presented three pieces of work, “La mujerzuela (The floozy)”, “La pelea (The fight)” and “Buscando al monstruo (Searching for the monster)”
“La pelea (The fight)” and “Buscando al monstruo (Searching for the monster)”are three moving sculptures. I used the motors and structures from the Christmas toys that I bought in Homebase earlier this month and re-adpat them to a new character in this case, two hands and a monkey, using fabrics, a stuffed toy and a knife.
I was a bit dissapointed with myself as I couldn’t managed to make them move on a loop on time for the crit (although I spent until the last minute trying). They are operated by the lengh of Christmas song and by a press on button. After 3 or 4 trips to Maplin and around £80 on adaptors, soldering led and switches nothing was working. I must say that I have nerver done before any soldering and as I think I didn’t soldered well. Now I know how to do it properly so there is a hope in there! but the whole thing still might be very frustrating as there are so many elements and so much trial an error that it is easy to put you off from the whole thing… I nearly chucked everything away but I know that I need to persevere and learn more. I have the support from one of the teachers which is an expert so he is keeping a eye on the process. I just need to find the time to soldier a new switch board to see if this will solve the problem of the toy moving on a loop constantly or to be activated by a sensor.
I did these two pieces exploring the subject matter of domestic violence. I wanted to represent this time the female as the aggresor against the male. The “woman” was powered with electricity so it had more movement, the “man” had the batteries still so it had a slower movement. ( I will post some videos later) The whole thing just didn’t work, the way I presented them on the floor with all the cables visible…. I just wanted to run away and CRY like a baby but I had to defend my work too so I had to stik to it and fight the feeling of failure back.
Buscando al monstruo (Searching for the monster) is another work in which I try to find a monster which haunts me from childhood. The monster is a normal character but at times becomes very scary. My attempt was to represent someone who goes on a state of rage, in this case a man. The shacking head could be due to the large amounts of adrenaline and oxygen in the bloodstream which causes a person’s extremities to shake when in a state of rage. The monkey’s arms shakes frenetically moving the knife stabbing the floor. The fact that is carrying a knife in his hand makes it already something that needs to be handle with care as it could cut your skin, something that usually happens with someone with rage manegement problems, the victim feels that they need to handle them with touch and care, measuring words as something could trigger an attack. I think “Buscando al monstruo (Searching for the monster)” has potential and following the advice from one of my teachers I should seek for technical advise, fix it and then present it within a box, something that can represent entrapment. The monkey will activate himself through a sensor when someone approaches the cube.
continues…
