Project Title: Distorting Architectural Forms
Rationale
Throughout this Foundation year, my enthusiasm for 3D work has already greatly expanded my skills with working with wood, stone, ceramics, metal and glass. I have become excited by the ideas of pushing the boundaries of what can be done to an object, such as my attempt to ‘droop’ a block of wood – looking at distorting the states of matter and what we know to be physically possible. I hope to continue this flow of experimentation, creating new textures, designs and compositions of work in an innovative and architecturally focused way.
Combining ideas of traditional art practise with more contemporary presentations is something that as an artist particularly interests me. The ‘Song Dong’ exhibition showed a perfect example of this. I was particularly influenced by his use of mirrors and glass, a medium the artist Andrew Logan also works in. His work has greatly influenced some of the works I have created so far on the foundation course (like making a stained glass hanging that I placed within a wooden geometric structure). Stained glass is a medium that I may incorporate into this architecturally themed final major project. Creating art with practical use has always been an underlying consideration of mine when creating, so the theme of architecture fulfils this idea. The added experimental side of distorting this broad theme not only specialises my project idea, but creates this initial balance between ‘Art’ and ‘Design’, an ongoing internal debate of dominance between the two.
Project concept
Architecture and nature as themes stand out to me, particularly as a means of expressing myself artistically. I want to explore the different ways of presenting structure and the different processes I can go through to create different marks and shapes. I am particularly interested in using the Lathe and carving wood to create plinth like structures. I want to present old and new architectural forms in the same way I would like to use both old and new techniques to produce these forms. The artist Edward Allington’s work seems to deal with this idea of combining traditional and contemporary art, being a part of the ‘New British Sculpture’ movement.
Visiting abandoned sites and photographing decay in architecture has been an intense hobby of mine, so I wanted to incorporate this idea of decay and ruin in a distorted way, combining this theme with a personal aspect. My dreams often contain some form of architectural structures which when I wake, if I remember, would not be physically possible to build in the real world. It would be interesting to document these structures as I remember them and attempt to re-create them in 3D as a start to this project. The freedom of creating a structure that technically shouldn’t exist is fascinating and exciting to me. I would also like to look at floor plans of these buildings, recreating those also and then combining them to create a whole new structure. ‘Langlands and Bell’, similarly to Iza Genzken create white scale models of buildings and architectural forms that although realistic, will give me a solid foundation to work from when creating my impossible designs. Martin Boyce is another artist I will research and consider in this project, having a more abstract approach to structure and form. His pieces are also quite minimal, so that contrast may help in the development of this project.
I will continue to research old buildings such as churches, and traditional techniques such as pargeting and carving. I will compare this with looking at modern processes like using the vac form to cast, looking at the brutalist architectural style and buildings that I find myself drawn to when I travel. I will re-visit the Sculpture Park also for further inspiration. This combination will hopefully all come together to form my final outcome at the end of the six weeks.
Evaluation
The development of this project will be recorded through documentation on my ‘Wix’ website as well as my working sketchbook. Gallery responses and reflections will be primarily on my blog, recording my opinions and how I have been influenced throughout this project. My sketchbook will hold more of a visual representation of theses influences as well as my plans and designs for my 3D pieces. The most influential artists to this project will also be referenced in my sketchbook to aid the visual development. I will record all my successes and failures through these mediums to support the positive continuation of my project. I will seek feedback from my tutors and peers throughout the six weeks as well as giving my own feedback to others. This will create a flow of ideas to continuously inspire the project’s development.
Proposed research sources and bibliography:
Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture and Background Information. Information Available at:
Song Dong Exhibition at the PACE Gallery Artist Statement/Press Release: PACE Gallery (2019) Song Dong Same Bed Different Dreams [Gallery Press Release].
Article- Wainwright, O (2017) ‘Langlands & Bell: the artists storming Silicon Valley’s fortresses’ Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/apr/26/langlands-and-bell-artist-duo-silicon-valley-architecture-apple-facebook-infinite-loop
Book- Allington, E (1985) Edward Allington, New Sculpture. Riverside Studios
Book- Boyce, M (2000) Martin Boyce, Fruitmarket Gallery
Movie – Winchester (2018) Directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig [Film] USA: Lionsgate, CBS Films
Google Earth- Street View (For visual References around the world)
National geographic Magazines- To explore different cultural architecture
Articles on brutalist architecture:
Remembering, interpreting and recording dreams:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2013/4/4/4184728/scientists-decode-dreams-with-mri-scan
Architecture in dreams: