Sculpture Week 2

Retrospectively, I am very pleased the work I made for the second week of 'Poetics of Materials' ...but I had to be convinced by other people before I thought this. I disliked the work up until it was finished and I had an opportunity to live with it and think about it a little more. I was mostly put off by how big and bold the cardboard structure I made was - I prefer things to be more delicate and subtle.

I was very indecisive about what to do with the structure - I had two main ideas about taking it further: continuing to make more and more of it, and introducing a new material. In order to make the decision, I trialled different arrangements, made sketches, made further maquettes and researched other artists. All these methods proved very useful but looking at other artists provided me with the winning idea this time.. I saw a collage/drawing by Rachel Whiteread (from 'Rachel Whiteread Drawings', ), where she had taken points in a found image and extended the lines out to the edge of the page. This led me to involve thread in my sculpture.

Rachel Whiteread - 'Stairs', 2003

I always find am better when responding to a space - it gives me confines to work in. Once I had established the space that I was able to use in the studio, the final piece came quite quickly and intuitively. The architecture of the space gave me all the ideas to position the cardboard, and the thread, and to invisibly suspend the structure with fishing wire. I think the illusion that the thread was the main support was the most successful element to the work - in the crit, people said it looked magical and mystical. I loved witnessing people understanding the work - having to go up close and investigate for themselves - this is the main concept I'd really love to take further, making a physical object that invites curiosity and forces people to think for themselves.

 

Interestingly, the thread and the expanse of white space of the studio wall brought back the subtlety that I was missing when the structure was by itself.