Wood / Copper / Wire Sculpture

Building a Sculpture.

I gathered together lots of scraps of wood and various other resources such as stretches of copper and different types of wire.

My mini-workshop.

I have never held a drill in my hand, let alone actually use one before...

Turns out I actually quite enjoyed it.

I just kept building and building....

and building...

I think the influence of Damian Ortega's 'Constructivist Failures' is evident in the piece as it starts to build up. However, I wasn't concentrating too much on geometric shapes, but more about building up a structure piece by piece.

The sculpture really became more interesting as I began to wrap copper and wire around it, intertwining between the wooden panels.

I was very pleased with the outcome at this stage as I felt a real sense of accomplishment. The piece itself might not be too impressive, but I really got myself involved in the process of making it and found it very exciting. The structure now has a lot of potential to be worked with both literally, but also through development with other 3D pieces and also 2D sketchbook work.

Pre-fab housing in South London built in the 1940's, Post-war. I am interested in the idea of destruction to art, but also the destruction of places. This pre-fab housing estate was recently in the news as the council were holding talks about destroying the estate. The houses were purpose built to last around 10-20 years following the destruction to housing in england during the War, but instead they have been in place for over 60 years. The idea of these houses being destroyed really fascinated me as the houses are all of different bright colours, something that I have been looking at recently. Back in the 1940's this estate was a utopia for the residents that were to live here. I feel my interest is becoming the idea of destroying a utopia and therefore creating a dystopia.

Rossville Flats in Derry. Demolished in 1989.

Le Corbusier. Colourful apartment block in Marsielle.

Damian Ortega. 'The Independent'. Based on the news story below.

Researching assembled structures.

And the destruction of structures.

The kind of construction I have recently been looking at reminds me of the structure behind classic woodern rollercoasters such as the one above in the USA.

I have began to explore the possibilities of using thin wire material within my sketchbook to generate ideas. Here I have split an image into different sections and placed the various pieces within and around the wire. I think this creates an interesting effect, especially when you view the page from different angles and it almost gives the impression the image is becoming 3D. I have used images of Manhattan skyline as I am interested by architecture and utopian cityscapes.

I have used wire here again, but also with added string wrapped around the wire. I feel this gives a certain construcivist quality to the piece. The idea was based on a 'utopia' in this particular place, perhaps emerging from the sea. I used blue, green and silver inks to help give the impression of emerging from the sea. I found it fascinating that the people's expressions on the tram are very oblivious to any occurence that is taking place behind them.

More experimentation with wire and paint. Using a wallpaper paint roller.

I built a small sculptural piece of intertwining wire, wrapped around by string. When I placed the piece onto a large sheet of paper indoors, the electric light formed a very interesting shadow upon the page next to the structure. Therefore I decided to draw this projected shadow onto the paper. Recently I have been looking at interventing through the use of bright colours, I wanted to reflect this idea here so I decided to mix together thick yellow paint with a small amount of water and pour it onto the scuplture. I intended to try and create interesting marks onto the paper underneath as I was expecting the wires and string to restrict paint meeting various parts of the paper. However, it turns out the liquid was overpowering and completely filled the base of the piece with colour. I was pleased with how the bright yellow colour created a strong contrast to the fierce and darker lines of the wire. Once the paint had dried I was curious to explore the possibilty of burning the sculpture. It probably wasn't the greatest idea to burn it during hours of darkness as it resulted in a lot of the structure being completely destroyed, but then I guess you can't really control fire completely so that was the beauty of the experiment. I wanted to do this as I feel it relates to the 'Luna Park' piece I looked at which was destroyed by arsonists, leaving a very interesting structure.

To follow on from the idea of destroying art by burning it, I decided to burn another piece of work I had created. Similarly to the last piece I began by randomly intertwining wire together to try and form some sort of tower structure. I came across an abandoned charcoal pencil holder. This intrigued me as I saw the potential to create a model block of flats from them with different coloured inks. In countries like France I have often seen blocks of flats, where each balcony is of different colours. I find these very interesting as it relates to the idea of colour invading a mundane space. I decided to attach the wire I had built up to the flat block tower as it would give the impression of the buildings' structure behind once it had been destroyed by fire. 

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?