This week I collected more CDs to cut up for my project. I did not make a lot of progress with actually gluing down the pieces, but I have pre cut up some CDs so that once I am done with APs at the beginning of this week I'll be able to put them on pretty quickly. I think overall I know where I'm going with this piece and what I need to do, so now I just have to get it done.
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Not much has changed about my sculpture since my last post. I am continuing to add pieces to the mosaic, which is going somewhat slowly but now that I can cut the CDs more easily its moving faster. In some areas I'm layering more pieces of CDs over top to cover some of the blank spaces and places where the glue has smudged. I also found one blue CD, which I am trying to figure out if I should incorporate somehow or keep the piece monochromatic.
For this project I am using cut up CDS to create a mosaic. Some parts of it are flat, while other parts are three dimensional pyramid shapes. One difficulty I've encountered so far is cutting up the CDs because normal scissors do not cut them easily. The best way I've found to cut them is using tin snips (the red handled things in thw first picture), which are very heavy duty and work pretty well. For the content of this piece, I am focusing on how CDs are a media that is quickly becoming obsolete as things like Netflix become more popular. Although they are becoming forgotten by people, because they are plastic they will remain in the environment for thousands of years.
Dusasa II, 2007, found aluminum, copper wire, plastic disks, 236 x 288 x 2 in, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York El Anatsui was born in 1944 in Anyako, Ghana. He studied at the College of Art, University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. He has spent most of his career working and teaching in Nigeria, at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. Anatsui's sculptures are known for being movable and flexible. Each time they are installed, their form can be changed to fit different spaces. Anatsui has said that he doesn't want to control the way people see his work, instead he wants to let people interpret the pieces in their own way, and allow the works to change over time. He uses a range of materials, including wood, metal, wire, plastic, bottle caps, and other found objects to create "metal cloths" that hang and drape on walls. Some pieces resemble woven cloth, such as kente cloths, which is a type of traditional weaving made in Ghana, however his work is more sculptural. Some of the themes explored in Anatsui's work include colonialism in Africa, the connections between European and African culture, and the environment. The use of discarded objects, such as liquor bottle caps, in many of his works reflects the cultural exchange between Europe and Africa during and after the colonial period. This video shows Anatsui's studio process and how he integrates his community with his art. Questions
1. What do you think about the flexibility of Anatsui's work? Does it take away his control of how people see his art? 2. How does African culture influence Anatsui's work? 3. How are Anatsui's studio practices similar or different to other artists we have studied in the past? My painting has changed a lot since I started it. I decided that I didn't like the pink as much as I thought I would, so I decided to layer blue over it, while still allowing some of the pink to show through. I also added more joint compound to the center of the piece so that it wasn't so bare. To add some contrast with the blue I used gold paint along the edges of the shapes. During this process I also changed the orientation of the painting many times, and have finally settled on having the stripes/blobs vertical rather than horizontal.
Bacchus, 2006-2008, acrylic on canvas, 128 3/4 x 162 3/8 in, Cy Twombly Foundation Info Cy Twombly was an American artist, born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia. He moved to Manhattan to study art in 1950, when the New York School was at its height. He studied with famed abstract expressionists such as Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell. During this time, he also traveled through Europe and North Africa, and in the late 1950s he moved to Rome permanently. Although he often traveled back and forth between Rome and New York throughout his career, Italy became his permanent home, and he died there in 2011. Twombly was greatly influenced both by artists in the New York School and European artists that he encountered during his travels. Because of this, Twombly's style was distinct from other Abstract Expressionist painters because he combined the New York style, which focused on the process of painting, with things he saw in Italy, such as Roman history and graffiti. His work as a cryptologist in the US Army during the early 1950s also affected his work, and he often thought of painting like writing, using line based compositions that often seem like they hint at a deeper narrative in his work. His work is usually large scaled, with scribbled and calligraphic shapes on pale white or gray backgrounds. In addition to painting, he also created some sculptures, which were inspired by the classical forms he saw in Italy. Many people criticize his work because people saw it as just scribbles without much difficulty or refinement, but this simplicity was part of Twombly's goal. This video gives an overview of Twombly's painting and sculpture work. Questions
1. Was Twombly a true abstract expressionist? What makes Twombly different from other abstract expressionists? 2. How did Twombly's surroundings and experiences affect the appearance of his work? 3. How do Twombly's sculptures compare with his paintings? Are they also very abstracted or are they more figurative? |
AuthorI am an art student at Maggie Walker Governor's School. On this site I post project progress, research, and photos of my final work. Archives
May 2018
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