Working
with materials that have already been made is a daunting task. The intuition
required to look at something, like a tricycle and a hula-hoop, and see
something else in it, like a spine and rib cage, is very rare. It takes many
people many years to be able to see something in a form that has already been
made. Needless to say, when faced with the project of creating recycled art I
was stumped. The options available and vagueness of the prompt was so elusive
that simply narrowing the playing field was difficult. I tried and failed at
many different styles of recycling. Plastics were too inconsistent; bike pieces
and glass, too sharp. I didn’t know what to do.
My
project came about as I was sitting in a book room surrounded by, obviously,
books. In a fit of temper I picked up the Encyclopaedia Britannica and chucked
it at the opposing wall. As it slid to the ground the pages made a very
delicate and interesting curl. I had seen pictures of other artists who had
taken books and twisted and carved at the pages to make interesting wave
patterns. I took inspiration and began tearing the pages out and curling them.
The shapes and lines of the type were endlessly attractive and from there I
built one loop on top of another. Fastened to a wooden rod the pages hung,
reminiscent of water droplets.
The
project is not finished, to be honest. The form is lacking all of it’s body and
the flow of the piece is not completely controlled. However, from what there
is, the shapes, depth and interaction of all of the separate parts of this
larger sculpture give an interesting feeling. There is a juxtaposition of
hanging squared lines and weighted curved droplets that makes the sculpture
almost whimsical.
I
can’t say that I’m incredibly proud of it. There was very little preparation
and the inspiration was rash and almost ill-advised. I like the idea of what I
wanted to do but the presentation of the idea left something to be desired. As
I looked at it I nit-picked each flaw that I saw and attempted to remedy it
with more paper loops. That caused the whole thing to become a little
overwhelming and messy. I also feel that, given more time and a little more
care, the project will turn out to be alright. It’s just not done yet.
I
know that my piece is not quite finished because when I look at it I imagine
more and I can visualize more dimension and movement. Now, technically, all art
work is a continual state of creation but there is an evident sense of
incompletion. I want to add more volume in a couple places and include strips
of paper that hang from the bottoms and edges in order to give the downward
pulling motion a little more delicacy.
Basically,
I’m gonna finish it soon, but what I have now is pretty chill.
