Wow….. suddenly I am acutely aware that I am at the end of a three-year process (well about two years and eight months to be more precise!). I am also very aware that this course has been about so much more than fine-art for me, it was a complete change of direction and a real step into the unknown. I probably hadn’t actually realised how much I really like making things until I took on the degree and also how therapeutic it is for me. As a child I was really creative, but in someways I thought much of that had dissolved in the great soup of life………
Anyway, more seriously and as I have already blogged recently, the pressure is really on! Our assessments are in two days time, which means we have precisely TOMORROW to tidy things up ready for the big day…… if you didn’t catch that fellow cohorteers…. THERE IS ONLY TOMORROW LEFT!!!!!!!
Curation wise, my installation is ready and I am fairly happy with it, although Monday I realised that it would benefit from some extra light. The space is ‘brightly and whitely’ painted, but it still requires a little more ‘zing’. I tried some experiments with powerful battery lights, which did yield results, but not to the extent that I wanted. Experimenting did make me aware of the possibilities though.
(As can be seen in the pics above, i think the light behind the spheres creates a really interesting ‘glow’, but it’s not a guaranteed science using battery lights, especially as there is a lot of sunlight coming into the studios).
So part of my task yesterday was sourcing some better lights, but this transferred over to today and even as I sit here now, it is not a problem that I have managed to solve. The closest I have come to a solution is through using halogen work lights (although I think health and safety will have a heart attack due to the fact that they get so hot!). Another possible solution is to follow up a contact with a DJ and sound shop tomorrow morning, which I hope may yield results.
I also completed my picket fence yesterday, which has a dual purpose of being sculpturally significant as part of the narrative of the work, but which will also act as a deterrent to get too close to it. In this particular situation, with a large pile of huge balls, I was concerned that someone (or someones child) might manage to disturb the arrangement only to then experience a small avalanche! Its not that they would kill or even maim anyone, but it would probably detract from both their and my experience of the Final Show!
My picket fence was initially made with squared off uprights, as that was the way I managed to get them cut at BQ. It was only after putting it together that I realised that the tops needed to be rounded off, as they would then better fit into the theme of ‘spheres and circles’ that the work tends to reflect. It was a bit soul-destroying starting over again, but I think in the end it was worth it.
More Recent Inspiration.
During the period leading up to the final show I have come across some really interesting and inspiring work by other artists. A particularly interesting series of works is by a male sculptor called Romain Langloir. He casts in bronze what appear to be giant rocks and boulders, broken in half (or more accurately pulled apart). In the act of showing the symbolic act of ‘pulling apart’ the rocks, he creates a sense that the inside of the boulders are made of chewing gum or toffee. This gives a completely amazing effect…….
Another artist that I feel that I can connect with is called Ernest Neto. This example of Neto’s work is a little like something I had imagined making over the last two years, for a final piece. I had imagined a wooden structure, perhaps ‘shrine-like’ where people could sit and meditate (or just sit!). I had discussed it with a more advanced student, who had also made quite a large structure himself, but I think it got lost before it even got onto paper. I like the idea that as a piece of art, it also brings the spectator into the piece.
Neto’s work is extremely different to the type of work I have created for my final piece, which appears to positively exclude the spectator! Part of my reasoning to position my picket fence into the space rather than on the periphery of it though, was an attempt to bring the spectator into the space, but at a safe distance. I think that if I get an opportunity to make another largish installation, it would be one where the spectator could move through the piece.
