Looking at some of the wire sculptures of Antony Gormley, I liked how his sculptures looked so simple but were very complex, the patterns he created not only with the material but with the spaces between the materials. I thought about how easy would it be to maintain the spaces between the materials?
I started to experiment with the measurements of my body. Using wire I made circles which were the circumference of my wrists, my forearms, my upper arms, my thighs, my calves, waist, hips and chest. I then attached these wire rings in different orders to create different shapes that still represented the measurements of my body.
At this time, one of the other students sitting next to me was constantly invading my studio space with his work, materials and personal possessions. This got me thinking about how our personal space is constantly being invaded or tested.
I had been exploring circles and spheres so I decided to make a sphere out of wire which represented the invisible boundary of my personal space around me. I wanted to explore the idea of my space in the world and how this actually worked in everyday life.
I made the sphere 64 inches high, which was my height and 64 inches wide which was the measurement of my arms outstretched. I then worked out roughly how many smaller circles I would need to make which I then attached together using more wire and stabilised with smaller circles in the gaps between the bigger circles.
With Gabrielle Orozco’s Yielding Stone (Piedra Que Cede) (1992), a plasticise ball, more or less his weight was rolled around the streets, where it picked up dust and debris, its surface sculptured by the surfaces it encountered. (Buchloh,1993,p10)
The idea of my sphere going on a journey and being impacted by the environment it travelled through appealed to me because of the parallels with how the human body is impacted everyday.
I found Francis Alys Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing (1997), a fascinating concept and this gave me the idea of actually taking my ‘space’ for a walk to see what would happen.
I liked the idea of it being something that I would find difficult because of having to be exposed to the looks and judgement of other people and how it would push me out of my comfort zone.
Reference:
Buchloh, B.H.D (1993) ‘Refuse and Refuge’ in Yve-Alain Bois (Ed) (2009) pp.1-15.
