After solving my astro-turf nightmare and it was delivered, I took it into Uni and laid it. I have now learned never to underestimate the magical powers of fake grass. As soon as I cut it roughly to size I had a collection of students sitting on it as if it were a pinic area. Everyone appeared very relaxed apart from myself; ….. I really wanted to experience it’s ‘virginal plastic fakery’ minus any human beings….. even really nice ones! Actually, I guess if I am honest they were really helpful, as when I began to place my sculptural pieces I got plenty of feedback as to what they felt worked and what didn’t. Although I had an idea of the form of my installation, I knew the exact structure of it wasnt going to be clear until I was in the space.
Having ideas around others’ work has become of real interest to me of late. I can see the potential in myself to see others’ work and want to offer my own ideas on how to display it and sometimes even on its evolution as a piece of work. I have generally exerted self-control and chosen to view this as a ‘no-go’ area as it feels so dangerous, but more recently I have been interested in, and more open to, listening to others views on my own work. Today a young female student made some comments that may have normally caused me to feel defensive, but I tried to deal with the comments / suggestions more objectively and at the end of the conversation felt her ideas had been exceptionally helpful (Thanks Becs).
Anyway, as I began to unravel the more exact structure of my installation one of the mantras I had in my mind was ‘not to make it overly complicated’ (despite it being quite a complex piece anyway). After discussing elements with another student, I started to feel that there were elements of it that I needed to review. One of these elements were a small pair of earth covered mummies that although were significant in meaning, did seem to change the energy of the piece. At this moment in time I have decided to leave them out as although the piece has a narrative which involves them to a degree, in terms of the aesthetics of the installation, the shapes work together better without them. Also I do not feel that the overall narrative necessarily loses out.
So with fake grass down, my piece is starting to come together….
Also, although I had a round low plinth to show my mummies, it seems really well placed under one of the earth spheres and I really appreciate the combination of surface and form…
I really like the way in which I feel all the spherical, hemispherical (and round pieces) work together, just in terms of their form, apart from any narrative / meaning.
In terms of Health and Safety, my only real anxiety was my three high pyramid of spheres, which I was conscious of as having the potential to slip and move. Although I don’t think this would seriously hurt anyone, it would be a shock – and also a pain for me as the owner of the (potentially failed) work! I tried to put wooden wedges under the spheres, but this didn’t yield great results. In the end I found that rolled up lengths of fake-grass, bound with fishing line created flexible tube-wedges which I could wrap around the bases of the bottom spheres. This worked really well and the structure ended up being very stable. The line remained invisible.
The last thing I want to note in this blog, is the great atmosphere in the studios at the moment between the majority of the students. Our level of student inter-cooperation has been through many phases over the last few years. In the initial year we all seemed to really gel, but his ‘gelling’ seemed to suffer as we all independently got on with our own work. At the moment there is a really healthy feeling again and we once again seem to be working as a ‘group’, assisting each other where needed in the preparation for the final show. it doesn’t feel possible that we have completed three years together ……….
