London Trip:
11/02/2020- 12/02/2010
I visited London with University and went to as many galleries as we possibly could in two days.
Tate Modern:
We visited the Tate Modern, where I saw the Dora Maar exhibition, which I found really interesting, even though it isn't work I'm usually interested very much in. While in the Tate Modern, I saw 'Fillette' a work by Louise Bourgeois.
'Fillette' - Louise Bourgeois
I really like this work as it can be seen as a man's penis or the female torso. I'd like my work to imply two opposing ideas. I like how it combines the idea of an erect penis with the vulnerability and fragility of a little girl. I also really like how it was displayed by hanging from the ceiling above everyone in the gallery, as it had the chance to be missed, if you did not look for it. Even though, it is quite small, the concept of it is unavoidable and displays a very impactful idea.
White Cube:
Yellow jebel - Bram Bogart
Bram Bogart's work was being exhibited in the White Cube. I found this exhibition particularly interesting as I really liked the textures of his work and found a lot of inspiration from the artworks. I would like my sculptures to have similar aesthetics as I think it looks extremely interesting and adds a lot of depth and movement to the work.
Binche - Bram Bogart
Bogart made these paintings by mixing cement and pigment together. They reminded me of gestural, action paintings.
Hauser & Wirth:
Sculpture Lampe - Alina Szapocznikow
Through her material experiments, Alina Szapocznikow generated a series of lamps that are functional sculptures of body parts extending from elongated stem-like bases. ‘Sculpture lampe’ combines a phallus-like form with a breast and female lips, the fragmented and juxtaposed body parts implying fetish objects.
Bust Étincelant - Alina Szapocnikow
I really like her work and how she uses her body casts to create household objects, like desk lamps. I really feel like she was ahead of her time as her work is still so contemporary and new. I'd like my work to have a similar effect and I could possibly use light in my own work?
Sculpture 4:
Fire Retardant Foam
I was given this piece as it was originally supposed to be used for keeping things safe while moving. It was made by spraying fire retardant foam onto a plank of wood. I really like this piece as it looks really soft and smooth. I also really like the textures of the work and it almost looks like something you'd want to eat?
I think the colour is very playful and feminine. Combining the colour of the foam and the wood inspires me to further explore the idea of hard and soft materials together. I could somehow use metal or clay with this piece?
As I'm trying to create very feminine, surreal-looking pieces of work, I could include some fabrics or possibly stitch? Or I could add fruit to the sculpture? The fruit would eventually start decaying and the piece would be forever changing. This would link to Sarah Lucas' work as she uses fruit in her work to symbolise genitals.
I could try and cut away at some of the foam with a scalpel knife so parts of the wood, would become visible. It might be interesting to insert materials into the holes?
Charlotte Nash:
I found Charlotte Nash's work very inspiring as she used expandable foam in patterned tights to create really interesting and unexpected looking sculptures. A lot of her work is very feminine as the tights she uses are usually floral patterned.
Maybe I could experiment using patterned or coloured tights?
Sculpture 5:
When I inserted the ring into the tights, the ring had some sharp bits of metal poking from the sides which ripped them. As I had previously ripped/laddered the tights when I inserted the ring. I decided to use a pair of tights in size XXL. This worked a lot better, as I was able to stretch the tights around the ring with more ease. I inserted balloons into the bottom of the tights. This could be a suggestion towards legs or a man's genitals. I think this will look very interesting once filled with expandable foam.
The holes made by the ring inspired me to cut holes into the tights to represent/symbolise a woman's vagina? (As in porn, women aren't seen as people, they are just seen as a 'hole').
After cutting the hole in the tights, I decided that the piece wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. I experimented with the possibilities of inserting an object(s) through the hole.
I created a small sculpture with foam that turned out to look like a penis. I made this using a stocking, I then had to cut the stocking out of the foam, which made it look like a penis. The seam of the stocking, also gave it sexual connotations.
I will fill the sculpture with expandable foam.
I decided to tie knots in the top of the tights as I didn't want the foam to expand down the legs.
I cut off the end of the foam 'penis' as I decided I wanted the full sculpture to represent an exaggeration of male genitals. I inserted the small foam piece into the tights, while the foam was still wet, which made the process very messy.
I thought the top of the foam would be a bit wider and fit the hole better. Maybe I could just fill it in with more expandable foam?
After experimenting with this idea, I found that it worked a lot better and was a lot more effective that my original idea as the sculpture looks like a suggestion towards men's genitalia. I think this works very well as it's an extreme and over-exaggerated form of a males genitals. This links to my initial idea as pornography is over-exaggerated and gives a false idea of what sex is.
If I was to do this again, I would definitely try and find a less, messy way to do it. This is because a lot of the wet foam from the sculpture ended up on the black sculpture. I would also measure the size of the hole before cutting it. I think the flesh coloured tights are very effective as it gives the sculpture human qualities but I do think it could make it look quite unfinished too? Maybe I could paint it flesh coloured with acrylic paints afterwards? I'd probably think about painting the black foam piece differently — maybe neon pink. As I don't like the black against the tights.
Sculpture 6:
Since I am now working from home, it could be a good idea to adapt my practise. By making my sculptures a lot smaller or creating more internet based works. I really enjoy creating expandable foam sculptures but I am finding it difficult to combine hard materials with the foam as they are not accessible to me currently.
Instead of throwing away bits of foam that I no longer needed or wanted. I decided to put the waste bits of foam together. I really like this sculpture as even though it's small, I think it's very effective.
This is the bottom of the black foam sculpture, that I used in my last sculpture and some foam from an exploded balloon which I used for my initial experimentation.
This sculpture reminds me of a pornographic image that, to me, captures the endangerment of women, from a pornographic magazine. I don't remember what magazine it was, nothing famous I recall. It was an image of a women leaning over a chair, in what looked like a normal, everyday living room. The photo only shows the woman's bum in close up and the woman's anus is gaping open, misshaped, a black hole about an inch wide. It stands out from the page so much, something that is horribly wrong. Anuses aren't meant to look like that.
After creating this sculpture, I thought about the magazine and the woman in the photo. How did it get like that? How does she feel knowing that her body has been damaged, mutilated and displayed for the enjoyment of men?
Senga Nengudi:
As far as symbolism is concerned, Senga Nengudi explores a material whose sole function is to be in contact with the female body. She uses tights as a symbol of the female persona: capacious, resilient, able to stretch and come back into shape. The flesh-tone colours of the material draw out such difficult and fundamental aspects of identity as race, gender, sexuality, and the physical characteristics of the female body. By collecting tights donated by friends and bought from shops, Nengudi accesses what she calls the “residual energy of what it means for a woman to wear these garments."
Nengudi performs a number of actions on the material—tying, knotting, twisting it together, stretching it between nails on the wall. When these objects are not being used to define movement, they hang in ways that suggest biomorphic forms, skins, and body parts. She further transforms the fabric by filling it with sand at its base or between knots. The sand swells, distends, and activates the hose, determining the position of one point in space relative to another.
The elasticity of the nylon mesh relates to the elasticity of the human body. Nengudi’s pendulous sculptures have aspects that are both masculine and feminine; her collaborative performances with artists of both sexes suggest a focus on social situations that equally affect men and women.
Comments