Organic vs. Industrial
Planning
Artistic Inspiration
Cultural Inspiration
I was inspired by my own frustration with the culture of "American beauty", a culture that raises white/European features above all else. European features are light skin, light eyes, light hair, small lips and noses, and so on and so forth. If you look at any white supermodel, there's your template for American beauty. These are not the only features that should be accepted
Planning Sketches
When this project first began, I immediately started to think of hanging objects such as chandeliers and mobiles because of ideas I'd had in previous projects and because we looked at Stuart Haygarth's work for our other mixed media sculpture. I'm a fan of thinking about how light interacts through hanging objects, so in the top right of the first image was an idea using shards of broken glass and/or broken CDs to represent acid rain caused by human pollution. I then moved to think of what I could create using things found at Goodwill, since I'd been there recently, and sketched some plants growing out of an old TV or computer screen. This would have been cool-looking, but didn't have much meaning behind it.
Featured here are some other small doodles of possible ideas, and in the bottom center of the first image is the first instance of the ribbon-covered hand, inspired by the red ribbon sculpture "Sacred Heart" by John Searles, who I found while researching abstract sculpture. I browsed hardware stores for industrial supplies and saw these fire pit rings, 71cm in diameter, and thought that might be the perfect base for my piece. However, it was big, heavy, and metal, so I found a smaller substitute in the form of wooden embroidery hoops. My other idea was to use rubber tire rings, but I couldn't find any that were small enough and light enough that they could be hung from the ceiling. My first sketches were actually for something that would be built from the ground up, then I inverted it to hang from the ceiling after researching Stuart Haygarth further. This gave it a much more interesting feeling, as gravity makes it look like the hand is trying to escape (something that fits the cultural inspiration perfectly). |
Experimentation
After I finished the armature of hoops, I attempted to attach the hand using clear string. As you can see here, that didn't work out too well; pretty much every ribbon attached to another hoop fell apart and the hand wasn't even balanced. I then attempted to use hot glue to fix it, and while it did work to attach the ribbon more firmly I still couldn't get the ribbon length right to have all of the hoops be balanced. In the end I unwound all of the ribbon on the hoops (not the hand) and rewound it so each hoop had its own individual section. Then, I hung the largest hoop from (OBJECT) and wove/hot glued strings of equal length on as tight as I could.
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Process
To begin, I spray-painted the embroidery hoops and the wooden hand to create a shiny black finish. The first picture is while they were in the process of drying, and the second is completely dry and ready to go. The hand is able to change position, but I sprayed it in a position in which the fingers are bending and slightly unnatural angles to create a sense of unease.
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Then, I had to wrap each embroidery hoop with red ribbon so the equal parts of ribbon and black hoop were present. I began by attaching the largest hoop to the second largest hoop and the smallest hoop to the second smallest hoop. Then I attached both sets to each other to create a chandelier-like armature. I attached the hand in a similar way, but attached it to the smallest hoop only.
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To finish I wrapped clear string/wire around the wrist of the hand and attached it to the smallest hoop. I attached it in 4 places in an attempt to make it balanced. I also replaced the clear string holding the hand with more ribbon, which balanced it significantly. The top rung still hangs at a slight angle, unfortunately.
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Reflection
I'm gonna be honest, physical media is definitely not in my comfort zone. My first attempts were messy and unbalanced and quickly fell apart when it came time to hang it. My second attempt was better because I wrapped the ribbons around each hoop individually before attempting to attach them to each other, and then used hot glue to glue down any fraying ends. Note: hot glue is hot and does not interact with thumbs very nicely. The current result still isn't as balanced as I'd like, although I might replace the clear wire with ribbon to see if that would make any difference.
My connection to my artistic inspirations were mainly in physical features: Haygarth inspired me to make a hanging piece and Searles inspired me to use red ribbon. I feel like my connection to my cultural inspiration was strong and achieved my goal of making something that isn't personal to just me, since most of my other pieces are about my individual experiences.
The organic qualities of this piece lie in the looping shapes of the ribbon and the organic form of a human hand. The industrial elements come into play with the geometric concentric circles and the overall message: American beauty standards of European features are constricting and harmful. The title, "Breach", is meant to reflect a desire to break free of these standards, hence the outstretched hand and suspension from the ceiling.
My connection to my artistic inspirations were mainly in physical features: Haygarth inspired me to make a hanging piece and Searles inspired me to use red ribbon. I feel like my connection to my cultural inspiration was strong and achieved my goal of making something that isn't personal to just me, since most of my other pieces are about my individual experiences.
The organic qualities of this piece lie in the looping shapes of the ribbon and the organic form of a human hand. The industrial elements come into play with the geometric concentric circles and the overall message: American beauty standards of European features are constricting and harmful. The title, "Breach", is meant to reflect a desire to break free of these standards, hence the outstretched hand and suspension from the ceiling.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
"Sacred Heart 1" by John Searles was what inspired me to use red ribbon and Stuart Haygarth's "Spectacle" was what inspired me to create something that could be suspended from the ceiling.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author from my research was aiming to promote Haygarth's work, as it was from Haygarth's own portfolio and praises him for using recycled materials in new ways.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that European features are considered superior to non-European features and it's harmful to those without European features.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspiration was how people hold beauty to the standards of European features and how harmful that is to people who don't fit into that cookie-cutter shape.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that European features are more praised than non-European (and non-white) features are, even in today's progressive media.
"Sacred Heart 1" by John Searles was what inspired me to use red ribbon and Stuart Haygarth's "Spectacle" was what inspired me to create something that could be suspended from the ceiling.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author from my research was aiming to promote Haygarth's work, as it was from Haygarth's own portfolio and praises him for using recycled materials in new ways.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that European features are considered superior to non-European features and it's harmful to those without European features.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspiration was how people hold beauty to the standards of European features and how harmful that is to people who don't fit into that cookie-cutter shape.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that European features are more praised than non-European (and non-white) features are, even in today's progressive media.
Bibliography