another idea I have had for this next project is a solid cast sculpture (no half and half- no join lines) about a foot tall of a figure and that figure repeated around the room but each one set at a different temperature so each would be a slightly different colour and would melt in a slightly different way the names of the pieces would then be the temperature in which they were set at between 290 Fahrenheit and 310 in inclement of 2 so there would be 10 figures all together.
they would then be shown in an exhibition each on its own plinth and over a course of a week slowly melt so each time a viewer saw them they would be different.
after this assessment I will start work on the next project which involves a collaboration here is the learning agreement for it.
I am focusing on raw materials involved in my work and would like to explore this further using this project. The project is focused on finding a context for my work and a tour around a sugar factory at bury st Edmunds owned by silver spoon will be a starting point for ideas for work for an exhibition. Exhibiting will be where aspect of my professional development will be realised. My work is nearly always destroyed and there is usually not any sellable work so my artistic career will be articulated through exhibiting. I hope to achieve an exhibition of my work and contacts with the makers of the raw materials I use.
I want to continue working with sugar which would build upon the work I have been currently been working on, I am planning on contacting Tate and Lyle, Britain’s largest manufacturer of sugar asking for permission to have access to their factory at Bury St Edmunds to take pictures of the process of sugar. When I have established links with them I would like to ask them if they would sponsor an exhibition where I would use the sugar. I plan to ask for access to the factory first and then when I have visited and photographed the process bring up the idea of sponsorship. I know that I want to create an exhibition but am not sure where or whether it with be large or small this would depend on correspondence with the sugar factory and prospective venues.
I am interested in sugar and its process because it is one of the rare materials that can complete a full scientific process in terms of conversion; you can heat and melt it, pour it into a mould and then re-crush it into sugar and melt and pour it again. This is the crux of what I’m looking at; the circle that elements take within life and the process of materials, the fact that mass is neither created or destroyed is a big part of what I am looking at. All the atoms within our body that make us who we are, are just atomic elements that have been endlessly recycled since the beginning of our existence. So in a broader sense I am interested in the base sculptural notion of transformation, which is at the heart of what I do, I will advertise the exhibition and keep any correspondence between myself and outside party’s also documenting the process of the time at the factory and any decisions made aesthetically about the work and the decisions made regarding the exhibition and any tactical choices made.
Some exhibition spaces I have thought about are the Freudian Sheep which is an independent run small gallery in Ipswich, the lookout tower at Auldbrough and the possibility of empty shop fronts around Suffolk, the arts centre in Ipswich, town hall, and the Ipswich art school.
I am interested in aspects of the transformation of material and the conversion of raw material this is why I would like to visit the sugar factory to witness the process first hand.
I would like to use this module as a chance to test out new ideas and installation ideas; I want to travel the entire cycle of the sugar from its raw form in to a workable piece of art. My plan B is to organise an exhibition of further sugar sculptures with advertising and marketing, if I can’t find somewhere that will let me fill it with raw sugar and can’t get the sugar, the quantity required for the planned installation. Should I be successful in obtaining the raw material will be used afterwards to create more work, thus establishing an endless cycle of creation.
If I am successful in receiving sponsorship in regards of sugar I want to fill a gallery space with the sugar to around ankle depth I want to do this to physically engage the audience and create a dialogue between artwork and raw materials within the frame of a gallery.
Indicative reference material:
Simon Starling – ShedBoatShed (Mobile Architecture 2)
Joseph Beuys – Honey pump
Silver spoon
The gallery of lost art
Joseph marr
Marc quin blood head
Ai wei wei sunflower seeds
so the final piece is up for assessment (wish me luck)
and Im pleased with how it looks, there’s still some development there though the sculptures tend to fall of there dowels a little quicker then I would like so that needs some looking into if I intend to take the piece further.
I intend to get some photographs of the pieces and will eventually make the photos in to art work, there not there yet as I feel the photos are not quite professional enough yet but my goal with them would be to get a good enough picture to be able to print them professionally in about A2 and they would then in turn become the exhibiting aspect of my work.
I am still hugely interested in the process side of the work and have been looking at artists like Simon starling boat shed boat , marc Quinn and his blood head, and henry moore for the way he takes just the impression of the human figure and doesn’t include the detailing.
Gunther Von Hagen’s
A scientist rather than an artist, but his work still has an artistic quality to it in the way he portrays his “subjects.”
Hagen’s developed a technique called “plasticization”, to put it simply it is where you take all of the water out of a dead specimen and replace it with a liquid polymer using the density rule (where with two cells, if one is full and the other empty the liquid will move to create an equal density over both cells) .
The liquid polymer is then hardened under a uv light creating a specimen that is preserved indefinitely, and yet the skin muscles and flesh behaves as if it were alive.
But Hagen’s took this to another level, he started using human bodies that had been donated to him by the owner, and stripping back the flesh skin and bones, creating scientific exhibitions teaching the public about the human autonomy in a way never done before.
Now here’s my problem with it, he calls himself a scientist but if you look at his work and the way he portrays the specimens it is more like an art piece, playing poker, having sex, sitting on a swing, are not ways you would portray a scientific specimen.
He has influenced my work through my interest of science and the human body, the way it moves, acts, reacts and copes with everyday life.
an interesting insight into the thoughts and work behind hagens work
Antony Gormley
Another artist that has influanced me heavily with his use of sculpture and the human figure.
Gormley creates striking sculptures, mainly out of metal from, casts of himself and is most famous for his public sculpture “angel of the north”.
Gormley describes his work as “an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live.”
His work attempts to treat the body not as an object but a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical – a trace of a real event of a real body in time.
What i really love about Gormleys work is the fact he doesnt try to preserve the work once its built, he doesnt coat the metal or resore the peices every few years. he lets every mark stand out and lets the weather and nature take its course, transforming the sculpture over the years.
