Over the past week I have been experimenting with the idea of utopia's and construction, both in 3D and 2D. I have also been experimenting with different and new ways of applying paint to my work to try and make it more exciting and explore new possibilities that I am curious of.

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/ortega/stone/



I have came across work by the artist Damian Ortega, who's work explores aesthetic and cultural situations through sculpture and installation. I am particularly interested in the piece 'Constructivist Failures' series, 2005. The wooden structures have distinctive constructivist qualities, and although the piece is built up of only straight edges it creates a very confusing and intimidating image upon the viewers eye. It almost reminds me of optical illusions.

I'm going to be honest, following on from creating a short animation video, I have become slightly stuck in which direction to take my work now. I have tried to develop on the idea of colour invading my sketchbook and thus the sketchbook becoming the actual work.

However, today I had an influential talk with my tutors. I feel like I have found a clear, exciting pathway where to take my work now, without losing my recurrent concept of colour invading spaces. At the moment I am finding it hard to materialize work as I have no real focus point to develop ideas from. I am perhaps trying to hard to make colour an essential part of my work and controlling the direction I go in too much. I need to become more experimental again, step back from the work and really let loose...

Previously I have found my work has developed successfully from an initial 3D piece. Therefore I have decided to think about creating a sculptural piece, which I can then develop ideas from. I have a great interest in constructivism and the utopia idea behind the proposals of Tatlin's Tower. I could possibly create my own utopia? With the use of fluorescent colour?

I have also been researching 'Luna Park', a sculpture by Heather and Ivan Morison. It was installed in Portsmouth in August 2010. It is a life-size model of an Ultrasaurus, a fictional dinosaur, that would have been the largest of the race. This was actually intended to be installed in Colchester Castle, but was burnt down after being up for 8 weeks. I like the idea that the piece reminds the public that fantasy is never far away. Although a dinosaur may not be a good example of a utopia, the idea of creating a perfect fantasy really excites me.

There were reports that the structure was burnt down by arsons, but also that there was an electric fault with the lights around the sculpture. The fact that the piece burnt down is what really intrigues me. This manmade dinosaur, of a steel frame with a polyester shell, suffered the same apocalyptic as dinosaurs did all that time ago when a fiery comet hit Earth. I am also really interested in form of the piece after it had been destroyed. The remaining structure following the fire would have been really interesting and allows for the chance of redevelopment. A new piece in itself?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4

I can relate my short stop-start motion to animations such as 'MUTO' by the street artist 'Blu'. Obviously mine is on a much smaller scale, but the initial idea to create a stop-start motion came from watching 'Blu's' videos via youtube. It is remarkable some of the things they achieve in these animations. The possibility of this technique in relation to intervening with public is vast. I could now consider producing a longer and more structured animation piece.

Following on from the 'Car Boot Art' mini-brief, I have decided to create a short stop-start motion video clip. The idea evolved whilst producing drawings from observation of my car and exploring the possibility of filling my car with colour. I gathered together a substantial amount of fluorescent yellow paper and tore it into shapes that allowed me to create the impression of a moving luminous liquid. I decided to use the car boot as the starting point of the installation as I felt it would be the most visually interesting. I also liked the idea of colour coming from the boot and leaving trails on the road behind to give a sense of the car moving forwards. Once I had filled the boot with colour I chose to gradually close the boot door, with the liquid-effect colour spilling out from underneath as it closes. I really like the idea of using narrative in my work and almost creating some sort of animation. The video was 25 seconds once I had put the images together and worked very effectively in giving the viewer the sense that the colour was invading a space. I also added music to the video to give a sinister feel. I used 'Justice - Stress', which always reminds me of something like the 'Jaws' theme tune when I hear it. With this puddle of colour growing ever closer to the camera, the music goes well in the video to create suspense.

For two sessions this week we were working with clay and plaster, creating moulds from car surfaces. Participating in these activities reminded me of the potential possiblities of materials I had access to for the course. I was beginning to perhaps become rather narrow in the range of materials I would use for my work. I found the process of creating clay moulds from interesting surfaces around my car and then filling these with plaster very fascinating. I finished up with some really exciting forms. I liked the contrast some of the plaster casts had created between manmade and natural. The detail of some of the surfaces was very distinct on some moulds and this came through to the plaster excellently. This contrasted with the plaster leaking down on the outside of the clay mould, which gave a very natural, liquid effect.

Once the casts had completely dried I decided to use ink on the surfaces to try and enhance aspects of the pieces. I really like the concept of completely changing the appearance of these forms by using strong colours.

Working in a group with some colleagues from the course, we decided to collect some car surface rubbings on a large sheet of light brown paper. We placed the paper across the top of the car and made rubbings of the grooves and details of the car. This gave an image of the car that was to scale. It showed me the possibility of recreating a fairly large object like a car to scale within the form of drawing. We then placed the drawing acorss tables and chairs and angled the image to give the impression of the form of the actual car. I really enjoyed doing this and I think if I were to perform it again I would collect more sheets of paper together and produce a number of drawings to then attach together, creating the car as a whole recreated form.