Completed my first version of my study statement, ready for my Unit 1 assessment. I've linked to it from the static menu, so hopefully the staff can find it that way, but it's also linked below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p5J0CpsRDTop7IY8rQfUydsaQH4IHmka8qxwzXe-5v4/edit?usp=sharing
When I was a kid I got into making papier mâché masks for a while. With my strange surge of interest in making physical art (WTF!), I've been thinking about masks again. I'd love to make some masks again, maybe even leading to other stuff. I'm wondering about the (largely discredited) 5 stages of grief - a mask for anger, a mask for bargaining, a mask for acceptance etc
For now, I've started making the base for a mask which I might turn into a sort of 'death eater' mask because it's fun, lower stakes, and I can work on all the problems first:
So far I've bent sculpting mesh around my face to give the basic shape (that stuff cuts you like a bastard) and then applied a single layer of kitchen roll soaked in glue
Somewhere, I can't remember where, I got the idea that I could scan my face and incorporate it into 3d renderings - I think it was because I was thinking about masks and 'virtual fabrication' (i.e. making a 3d art work before I (potentially) make a real art work). I want to incorporate them into a broader series of artworks with the working title "rivers of silver", which was inspired by seeing the light catch the streams on a marsh beside the road on the way to see my son - that made me think of simulating rivers and texturing them silver, probably inspired by my experimenting with gilding... And because I was driving, I remembered my 'caught on camera' series (which I need to revisit) and I thought of the 'rivers of silver' being tears... I'm imagining doing liquid simulations, but also making masks and silvering the tears...
Anyhoo... My phone camera is broken, but after some research, I realised I could use an app on a friend's iPhone. I imported the resulting PLY file into blender, added a nice silver texture, and got this:
Next stop will be a liquid simulation or two, but in the meantime, I did this:
I'm experimenting with using gold leaf - it's not real gold, which is good because I don't feel so bad when it goes absolutely everywhere... I've bought PVA glue pens, and I'm trying lettering, but I also gilded (?) one of my wax heads
Good quote in 'Seven Days in the Art World' from Chris Burden:
"The name 'performance art' is a misnomer, it is the opposite of theatre. In Europe they call it 'Action Art'. When a performance artist says he or she is doing something, the predominant feeling is that he or she is actually going to do it "
It's a helpful distinction - I guess in theatre, the 'art' is the illusion and the story telling, in performance art the 'art' is the act itself.
For a while, I've been collecting cheese wax from my daughter's mini-cheeses. I had a vague idea to use it in a physical version of "Secrets", but it truth it just felt wasteful to bin it! I recently started melting it into neat ingots:
And that made me think about casting it, so on a whim (with a vague idea to use them in another possible art work) I bought a silicon dolls head mould from Amazon and started casting little wax heads:
Aren't they cute? I cast a few more and suddenly had an epiphany - I cast them to almost 'record' the fact that I was there, and alive - their existing shows that I exist... So I think I want to make an art work with them that reflects that, something that is a record - my first (slightly dangerous) idea is to make a mental health diary for a month using them - or maybe abusing them... Each day I will take a head and attempt to decorate/damage it in a way that reflects the state of my mental health on that day. If it goes well, I'll by a 'calendar shaped' (i.e. 7 slots wide and maybe 5 slots deep) display case for them.
I've started reading "Seven Days in the Art World" by Sarah Thornton.
Not got far, but very interesting so far. Each chapter is a 'day' and each 'day' is a different aspect of the art world. So far I've read "The Auction" and I'm reading "The Crit". Interestingly, through it I've discovered the idea of Critical Practice, which I find very interesting, and sits with my feeling of my practice being "concept led" - I need to read more.
