It’s been a busy couple of weeks in terms of writing proposals and coordinating an upcoming exhibition. But amid it all I’ve finally finished my new piece ‘Oracular Spectacular’, a wall-based artwork that merges consumer packaging with traditional framing. Here are some images, documenting its stages of development and construction.
To get myself out of the computer-based habit of constantly being able to hit CTRL-Z and undo my actions, I sketched the initial image in ink (as opposed to using only pencil) as a means of committing to the picture & not over-thinking things. Only towards the end did I cover up & redraw a few parts that I didn’t like or that I felt should be changed.
Once it was done, I photographed the sketch and began the ‘flip flop’ process (described in my first post) by stitching the two halves of the artwork together in Photoshop, making tiny adjustments and printing it back out on paper. After this I transcribed the image onto cardboard via a process of embossing – then colored it with acrylic paint, which I applied using Uni-Posca markers. Finally, I covered the whole artwork with varnish to seal it all together.
After this I performed the crucial step: I created a box (made of similar metallic cardboard material as the artwork itself) to contain the work and hang it on the wall. The acrylic imagery was protected behind a window of PVC plastic, similar to the way perfumes and chocolates are packaged. Rather than framing the artwork in a traditional way, I wanted to stay consistent with my emphasis on packaging and consumer-based display methods.
The iconography brings together several ideas and themes I’ve worked with before – including Grail mythology, T.S Eliot’s The Wasteland, Masonic imagery, and Tarot card symbolism. Other iconography & text in the piece are derived from video games (esp. Super Mario Brothers), Dr. Seuss, the art of Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and David Hockney, and the music of Velvet Underground. These are all remixed together into a kind of contemporary hieroglyphic language that covers the inside of this ‘gift box’ shaped artwork.
This is my first hand-made piece in quite a while & it does have a different feel than my digitally-printed artworks. Also, it’s much smaller than the sculptures I’ve been creating to date. Making big, intricate sculptural forms can be quite addictive…so it’s nice to break the spell and tackle a smaller, simpler piece. It’s been a challenge to get to this point, but so far I’m satisfied with the results…
