The last pieces of work that I made were four small water colour sketches of faces. I wrapped them, parcel like, and hung them on a length of chain. It was a way of linking them together, to say that although, wrapped, they all look the same outside but under that layer they are all different.
Kathryn, 2015, Chained Work, Canvas, watercolour paint, brown paper, length of found chain. Each canvas 8cm sq.
Kathryn, 2015, Chained Work, Canvas, watercolour paint, brown paper, found length of chain. Each canvas 8cm sq.
Rather like the original pieces place in the Art School – they are all site specific and combine in the overall meaning of the place they are sited but underneath the meaning and makers are different.
The critique on how I had made and displayed these small parcels didn’t go well and the general opinion was that they were to “perfectly” wrapped and didn’t fit with the other things I showed. The context wasn’t right for them and perhaps I should have only shown them or not included them at all. Something to remember for my degree show – don’t include everything, sometimes less is more as the saying goes!
At the end of the week in Cyprus I feel great, chilled and ready to face the last few week’s of challenges working towards the Degree Show.
Whilst eating a sandwich wrapped in foil I had the idea of wrapping the faces of the statues in it. It worked best with foil that was crinkled and straightened rather than new foil but both achieved a 3D mask like face.
Another carved stone head in the art school garden that I used, this time covering in foil.
If I had been at home I would have continued the process by adding plaster to the reverse of the foil and leave it to set. I used this process in my first year to make small heads.
Kathryn Raffell, 2014, Baby Faces, 11cmx6cm, plaster.
But as no plaster to hand I settled for pinning the foil masks to the wall as part of the end of the week pop up exhibition.
Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Masks, Medium – foil.
Continuing to use foil as a medium, I used it to make a mask of my face and documented this by making a short video.
The mask I made in this clip I put into the end of the week exhibition we had. I placed it into a dried plant I found near the school as I wanted it to appear to be part of the nature of the place.
Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Foil Mask cast of my face, Foil medium and dried plant material.
The trip gave me the time to concentrate on making work for the fun of it given that I only took the minimum of art supplies with me, paper, pencils and a few watercolours. I used the artwork around the school and its surroundings for inspiration.
I particularly liked the carved figure heads made from all sorts of materials, stone, plaster, wood and chose four of them to base work on. I used thin brown paper and a graphite stick to take rubbings of their faces. I then laid opaque acetate over this and drew over the facial features that I wanted to accentuate. I taped the acetate back onto the original heads as a way to explore how my interpretations of the features might alter the appearance. I took photographs of each step.
Photographs taken by Kathryn Raffell, March 2015, documenting the stages in a piece of work using a plaster figure cited outside the Art School.
Photographs of the second carved figure I explored in a graphite rubbing.
Yet another one of the figures in the art school garden that I used to make work from. This one was particularly interesting as the colour of the plaster used ahowed through the acetate to give the face a skin tone.
This carved wooden head was the least effective through the rubbing. Perhaps the graphite pencil was too harsh a medium to use.
