make 5 pieces that embody our word
We had to use 5 materials we liked using to make 5 pieces that embodied our word. Each piece had to either exaggerate or contradict whatever strategies or techniques we used to make the previous piece.
Simultaneity isn’t always an easy thing to convey. For me, so far, projects had to be something recognizable, something used or known in real life. I didn’t deal well with the abstract. I didn’t work that way. I still don’t, really. So I immediately hated this project.
The first piece was made in-class on the day we got the assignment, but was constructed in such a way that it couldn’t be moved, and therefore wasn’t saved. Everything was balanced and arranged just so, any attempt to pick it up would make the whole thing fall apart. I had trouble with the abstract nature of the assignment at first, but once it started looking like a big sailing ship under construction, I had no trouble playing with an abstracted image of that.
The second idea came to me as a random doodle in art history, and was meant to just be lots of different kinds of construction methods, shapes and materials at once. I was particularly excited about the structural stuff I did with the cardboard, cutting two notches and two slots so they’d fit together and the notches would fit around the wooden piece on all sides, holding the cardboard fixture on top of the pillars. I contradicted the totally-random and unplanned nature of the first piece in making this one; it’s meant to be displayed with the diagrams and plans in the sketchbook.
The third piece is my least favorite in terms of a piece, but probably the best in terms of the assignment. I just doesn’t look very finished or good, but it embodies my word very well by being a bunch of things that all look like that, nothing else. This one was supposed to be contradicting the planning of the previous piece by just closing my eyes while I made it, but that didn’t work very well, I just kept peeking. A classmate suggested I not limit myself, but make it about only doing that one thing instead of thinking about how to make the whole piece, to just focus on making each connection until they build up to the whole piece.
After those two I went home for a long weekend over Thanksgiving, and I finished the rest once I got back. I got on a roll and finished the last 4 very quickly the day I got back to school.
Fourth, I wanted more of a finished looking piece, to contradict the random nature of the previous one. So this one was very arranged-looking, very finished-looking and I don’t know what it is, but I like it. I like the suspension of the string, the little spikes through the paper rolls, the cardboard notches and the civil-war-rifle-collection-look of the whole piece.
Last, I used the spike-through-paper-roll idea but took it as far as I could, using one giant roll, big cardboard pieces and a bunch of big spikes and making that the whole piece. I wanted to keep the taut string too, so I put that in as well.
Overall, I opened up a bit to abstract work, but I’m alright with it not being my preference.
