Monday 30 March 2015

Coloured Blocks and Reading

Over the weekend I started to look at a range of books for my research project concerning Kazimir Malevich, Anish Kapoor and Daniel Buren. The books offered a really interesting insight into their work and will form my main research for the essay. After seeing Buren's work a few weeks ago in Paris it was intriguing to learn more about the meaning behind his sculptures.

I have been continuing to experiment with the size, shape and colour of my own sculptures. I am yet to feel entirely comfortable with a particular size, but I think I have settled on the cube as the overall shape.



I experimented further with attaching multiple pieces of wood together to create one solid block. The aesthetics of this are interesting but the finished outcome isn't very strong, so when using any electric tools the blocks come detached from each other. This is obviously a problem, so  I don't think I'm going to continue making sculptures like this.
 


I purchased some files the other day which help to make some interesting work, allowing me to make small holes that help me to portray negative emotions. I hope to continue experimenting with the size of the wood as well as the range of colours in the next few days. I also want to begin writing my essay too.

Thursday 26 March 2015

Colour Arrangements

After deciding yesterday to use watercolours rather than ink to colour the wood, I began today to spend more time experimenting with the creation of my sculptures. Considering which main emotion each colour will portray, as well as which specific sanding techniques will represent different feelings. For example, an irritated feeling will be shown by having lots of little notches sanded out of the wood. Insecurity will be portrayed as a long sharp piece of the wood being sanded away.


After creating some of this work it made me think about whether or not the wood should be affected only on the front, or around the whole thing. I think that I will use every side of the object if the certain emotion demands it, but I won't force myself to use the whole piece of wood to its full extent.

I also began to consider the layout of the final sculptures, whether or not to have them displayed on the wall, stacked on top of each other in rows of seven to show the individual weeks or to just have them lined up in a row. Another option would be to stack them in an aesthetically pleasing way, mixing up the shapes to make an interesting pattern of different colours. 


I am still un-decided whether or not the use of colour is a positive aspect of the sculptures. I feel that it may be drawing the viewer's eyes straight to it, rather than allowing them to consider the softness of the wood, or how it's sanded. Over the next few weeks I will think about this further and decide whether or not I should continue with colour. 


Finally this evening I went to see a live broadcast of A View From The Bridge, which is currently performing at the Young Vic in London. Unfortunately, seeing a performance like this in the cinema is a very different experience from actually being in front of the actors whilst they're on stage. I don't think I will go through this experience again of seeing theatre through a screen, as it doesn't quite live up to it happening right in front of you.

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Labelling Work

Today I continued to experiment with colour in my work, using ink to transform the wood. This worked really well to make the pieces much more vibrant, as well as keeping the grain of the wood visible. The only unfortunate aspect of using ink is that you can't really mix the colours, so if I chose to solely use ink for my final piece I would only be able to use three or four different colours. This is why I intend to work further with watercolours, mixing them to see whether I want colour within the work or not.




After deciding the other day that I will allow the viewer to touch the sculptures, I have been thinking about how to better reflect the emotion when one touches the wood. For example, if I leave the sculpture un-sanded after I have painted it, the wood is rough, this would help to better reflect a negative emotion. I also thought about how a sharp curve could feel like a negative emotion, or being unable not to fit your finger in a hole on the side of the wood. This could be showing frustration. On the other hand a subtle curve would reflect a more positive and open emotion.


I also thought a lot about the labelling of the final piece, how I could label it in a way that sums up the majority of the emotions that I had felt in the documented month. I will have to wait until I compile all the data to start thinking about this overarching emotion. I continued to think about whether or not I should put a "please do touch" sign next to the work when it's exhibited, but I think I enjoy the fact that when the viewer does choose to touch it they will be in a certain mind-set whilst doing this, attempting to touch the work without being seen to do so.

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Painted Wood

I started the day by creating a series of sculptures looking at my own use of symmetry. This helped me to see that when I sand down all the edges of the wood it becomes happier, making the particular piece much more approachable. This may be to do with the use of symmetry, sanding down all four edges rather than only one on earlier pieces, but I think it's also to do with the lack of sharp edges, which has started to feel like an angry emotion. When the two vastly different pieces are displayed together they do enhance each other well. 

I continued to experiment with the use of labelling, setting up some early sculptures on the wall and adding a label to the work near the floor. I then asked my peers to tell me how they felt when looking at the work and then at the label. This was interesting to do but I knew that most people would be feeling annoyed about having to bend down to see a boring title. I intend to experiment further with this, experimenting with naming the work differently and putting the label in different locations around the work. 

Throughout the day I experimented with watercolours to paint the sanded wood. This worked well up to a point, allowing the grain of the wood to still be seen through the paint. The more water I added the clearer the grain became. Through experimentation I learned to sand the wood before and after painting, to preserve the soft texture of the wood, which was lost if I didn't sand down the wood after I had painted it. I will continue to experiment with the use of colour to see whether it continues to work well with the wood. This use of colour would make the meaning more apparent for the viewer, painting a block red for example would signify that the emotion being conveyed through the sculpture was anger. I must consider whether I want to make my work easier to understand or not, and weigh that against the aesthetic value of adding colour.



I am also continuing to think about my research paper and have finally arrived at a title for the essay, "Aesthetic Choices and Meaningful Dialogue". In it I will look into artists that make aesthetic choices to entice the viewer to look into the deeper meaning within their work. I will also explore how I seek to accomplish this in my own work. I hope that I will make some interesting insights into my own work through looking into others.

Also today my business cards arrived, which is exciting, but I doubt I'll actually use them for a while which is a shame.

Monday 23 March 2015

Emotions within Art

Over the past few days I have been thinking a lot about the tools that I'm using to attack the wood, and how different tools reflect whether the emotion being translated through the wood is either a manufactured one or a real one. The further I move away from just using my hands and a piece of sandpaper to affect the wood, the more manufactured the emotion is. This manufactured emotion is hard to record using the excel chart that is an on-going part of my research, as I'm being honest with the chart about how I'm feeling on that particular day, rather than putting up a front. So I don't know how I'm going to incorporate that into the chart or start to record it in another way. Or I could disregard the whole premise entirely, but that would take away a layer from the work, rather than adding one.

I have also been looking at the relationship between art and emotion, how research shows that if a work of art has symmetry within it, it is typically approached and favoured positively because symmetry also exists in the human figure, thus humans reacting positively towards it. This made me think about how I could use symmetry within my own work to evoke positive or negative emotions. I plan to look into this further. I also looked into how people's thoughts about a piece of work change depending on what the description says it's about. I have begun to experiment with this in my own work by calling a piece untitled, and having the label close to the floor. This would evoke annoyance in the viewer on two levels, one being that they had been made to bent down to look at the label, the other being that it was only called untitled, rather than anything significant. The label would reinforce the emotion (in this case annoyance) trying to be conveyed through the sculpture.

Today I continued to think about what the different sanding types actually show in terms of what I'm feeling, and whether the different sanding types alone are sufficient enough to translate and evoke a feeling to the viewer. I began to consider how I could enhance the emotion, how I could jab at the wood with an electric sander, rather than slowly and methodically sanding down a particular piece. I also considered how I could make the sculpture first with no emotional thought, and then discuss with my peers and family members what feeling the piece is attempting to evoke, rather than setting out to create a certain feeling. This would add a new layer of participation to the pieces of work that I'm creating.

Throughout the day I also kept experimenting with new ways to sand down the wood. The electric tools speed up the process, but there is a significant change in the minute detail within the work, so I will continue to use both sandpaper and hand tools.





Finally I decided that touching the work is important to understanding the feeling behind it. This became apparent to me when I kept touching the wood whilst I was writing about it. When I come to display this work at the end of the unit, I won't put a label next to the piece saying that you can touch it, I will simply allow the viewer to touch it without explicitly telling them that they can. The wood will be dirtier (from people touching the work) the longer the exhibition is on for, symbolising how your past emotions are slowly forgotten as time moves on.

Thursday 19 March 2015

Layers

I began today thinking about the different ways in which I've been affecting the wood and how I have been sanding blocks down in both subtle and un-subtle ways. I began to consider how the different ways could be seen as showing different emotions. A subtly sanded piece of wood would be a sad emotion for example. I went on from this to thinking about the layers of the wood, and how as I sanded more of the wood it could show how much of that particular emotion I was feeling. I would use the data that I've been collecting from my emotion scale to achieve this.

I was having lots of thoughts about changing the size of the wood blocks to help communicate and reinforce an emotion. If a viewer saw a small block and a big block together, it would be obvious that the larger of the two is representing an angry emotion. I experimented with this by displaying pieces of my work in pairs and by themselves. This also helped me to think about which emotions were being portrayed within the different pieces.


I also thought about how in a set of these pieces part of the previous piece of work could be shown in the next day's sculpture. This would be reflecting how one day when you might feel a strong emotion, it will stay with you for the next day, and maybe in the next few days too. At the end of the day I began looking at what the different sanding types are communicating to the audience and started to put them into categories, this is something that I will continue to do.

Finally I found out today that I got a place at Chelsea College of Arts, which was quite exciting as I think it's my first choice of universities.

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Evoking Emotions

I was asked an interesting question about my work today, whether or not I wanted to portray emotions through my sculptures or evoke them in the audience. I feel that even though it was asked in response to seeing what my project was about, it is something to think about in terms of my art practice in general. I'm still thinking about if I want to evoke or portray emotions, or perhaps a mixture of both, this is something that I'm going to consider further.

During the day I continued to experiment with different sanding techniques, I'm beginning to really enjoy the general aesthetic of the sanded wood, but need to bring it back to the meaning and actually spend some time thinking about what it all means in terms of reflecting emotions. I hope to spend the next few days and the weekend just thinking about it all rather than affecting wood.




I also continued to look at using paper as a substitute for wood. I think that if this were to be done properly, spending time to layer the paper precisely, it would look aesthetically pleasing but would loose all of the unintentional aspects that occur when using the wood. So I don't think I'm going to continue using paper as a material, even though there are many parts to the work that could be explored further.
Unrelated to the artwork that I'm creating, but still about art in general, I played a game called Journey this week, which I would definitely consider an art piece in itself. It was a truly beautiful and enjoyable experience that I have wanted to take part in for a while.

Today I also ordered some business cards to be made, which allows me to easily give out my contact details and show a small piece of my work if anyone wants my information. It has my name on the front with a photograph of my work on the back.