I have found some inspiration from a couple of Italian designers called Formafantasma. Unfortunately, I didn’t see their recent show but have now documented the images that I can find. Seeing their work has tied in with a recent tutorial from which I came away thinking that I should not get stuck into making sculpture which is too highly crafted but should allow a looser, more surprising approach.
These two call themselves designers, rather than artists. Their work explores the significance of objects as cultural conduits. The role of craft and industry is important in the design of their work which encompasses the use of leather, wood, glass and natural polymers extracted from plants or animal-derivatives. The objects take the form of tools, furniture, vessels and rugs but all exhibit a redundancy or primitivism where their production appears to be based on the symbolic connotations of the material.
I think their work can also be classified as art because the utility of the objects is implied, but their interpretation cannot be placed. They are neither archaic not futuristic. The works are hand-sized which implies that they have been hand-crafted. On their own they appear to be prototypes but have been produced as editions of eight or twelve, on an industrial scale. There is an appealing absurdity in this.
The tutorial refocused my thoughts about how much craft should be allowed into my sculpture. I seem to tread the line where some of my work is only just art and this is the reason why it works. However I think I need to make more ‘situations’ happen where materials work in a surprising way due to their placement or their substance.
This week I will be sand casting in order to make aluminium rope. This is quite labour intensive for an uncertain outcome and probably contradicts my endeavour to do less craft!
