Probably my final official post on this blog (I should imagine I will still add a couple more posts at some point during the next few weeks of the degree show put up). I feel that as the blog and my degree are coming to an end, I would put a kind of sum up of my experience at University, my final project and my overall experience of using my blog.
If I could go back in time and talk to the 19 year old me who wasn’t so sure on going to Uni and nearly didn’t go I’d tell her to go for it, explore EVERY avenue with the ideas that you come up with, experiment with all materials to hand and push push push yourself until you can’t push yourself anymore, and most importantly enjoy it for the limited time there is because my god does three years fly by in a blink of an eye.
Doing this degree has opened up my eyes to the wider world of art and I feel it has also opened up a lot of doors for me to go through (be these arty or not). I feel that I have overcome so many hurdles and barriers and feel that my zoo cage project relates to the journey I have travelled through my time at Uni to get to the point that I am currently at. I also feel that my cage can represent many things not just to me, but also everyone. To me, when I look and think about my cage I feel it has become a metaphor for my time at Uni. It feels to me as if I am building this cage that is going to hold in all the experiences, feelings, ideas etc that I have felt whilst being at Uni and especially this last year, and that once I have built it the end of my time as a student is really over. It feels like I am closing the cage door on everything and turning onto new paths.
Finally, my blog experience … As a few of you may know I wasn’t that excited about the prospect of blogging as I don’t really like to express my feelings about my art. I enjoy (as many of us do) creating work for viewers to appreciate and relate to in some way and don’t try to force my opinions upon them. So keeping an account of my artwork journey, online, where anyone can read was a little bit uncomfortable for me to do, I think that this can be seen in my earlier blog posts. However, as I became more confident in my ideas and what I was doing, making and thinking and the more I posted on here, I found that I enjoyed the process of blogging. So much so, I have started a new blog that I am going to use to communicate with the world about my work.
With only a few days left till I finish, it is a bit of a scary thought that it is all coming to an end. Education has made up a large part of my life so far and having dedicated five years of my education/life to art, the real work begins … the real world beckons.
Hope you continue to follow me on my art world journey and thank you for taking the time to read my blog.
Day 4 of Degree Show put up
I spent today doing a quite a bit I feel.
Popped to town and brought some more string and some bracket things that are to be attached to the wall with screws and then using more string to keep the bamboo walls in place.
Tomorrow I need to finish my last 6ft X 6ft bamboo wall and then just un-tie a couple of 6ft lengths off my 4ft wide walls because of the move in ideas from free standing structure in my exhibiting space and also now that my cage is going to be connected to the walls so now two of my end walls will now be turned into doors. Still trying to work out whether I can create some sort of false pulley system to make the doors look more real … this is the plan for tomorrow along with the final wall build.
Next week (if all goes to plan) I will be able to start to put the key elements of my piece … such as the bedding, the covering for the floor, and key objects… Excited…
Day 3 of Degree Show put up
21/05/2013
Today started off a bit slow, got up late which then seemed to make everything else late (in my head that is).
The original plan was to head in for 9 (didnt happen) and construct two 6ft high by 4ft wide sides and also two of my four 6ftx6ft walls (the latter also didnt happen). However, I did manage two walls and also (with some help) have worked out how I can structurally support my cage so that it won’t warp, nor move when viewers are walking past and entering the cage itself.
During a rather lengthy discussion with a fellow student about my cage, ideas for brackets (which I really didnt get at all) and that a free standing cage may not work for this piece (both asthictically or structurally) we did agree that straw is probably the best thing to put on the floor as it will fit in with my bamboo natural feel about my cage.
Finally for this post … A few things I am currently struggling/thinking about tonight …
1. hand-in for critical review is Friday and my plan of handing it in tomorrow isn’t happening (will try for Thursday)
2. do i shred my maps up and use them as part of my bedding for the space … is this over complicating or will adding something extra … hmm
3. on my sign into my exhibit do I use the word homosapien or human to describe the “animal” in my cage ???
Answers on a postcard please.
Will add final(ish) blog tomorrow night … hopefully I will have answers for my questions and also I will have a few photographs to put up …
Day 2 of Degree Show put up … (yesterdays – 20th May)
Spent today in my exhibiting space … yay!!! Am very excited about my cage designs and am ready to get on with the build and construction of my piece. However today I spent filling and sanding and painting my walls and clear space for the real work to begin tomorrow.
Also spent today as a time to real consider the items that will be placed in the cage to make it more “homely” for my inhabitants (animals/humans) but these items also should not be too new, they need to look old and used I feel.
I have spent most of today reading my blog and updating some posts (see my now doubled in size artist post – especially the bit about Damien Hirst).
Anyway I am currently feeling rather happy about my ideas and whats going to be happening over the next couple of weeks, painting walls, constructing my cgae, hopefully a performance element somewhere and private view.
Calm before the storm I fear … oh well.
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So whilst I am in this good mood of feeling calm I thought I would take this time to talk about my final design a little bit more in depth.
After thinking it over and over again of should I use solid walls for my cage and create windows, should I have bars which creates the cage feel, do I allow visitors inside or not – I have the answers.
The solid walls are gone from my cage designs … they were helpful whilst they were iin the idea pool but they limit the design and where it can be exhibited.
By creating a Bamboo cage structure I will hopefully the desired caged in feeling, and although I will be covering up most of the cage structure with craft paper so that the areas feel even more enclosed and cramped by using natural lighting (and possibly some artificial ones too) the bars will come through and create an errie presencce on the viewer.
With this final design there will be three areas – I’m still weighing up whether to let the audience into the whole cage – but for the time being I am keeping it so that they can enter the middle section, experience being caged, but dont have access to the other two areas so that I can place items on the floor – such as books, blankets and plates and also possibly have sound effects in these areas.
