Day Four: Malaga

Today we went Malaga. There were some great exhibitions on and it was a good day for photographs and drawing.

The Alcazabar was my favourite location of the day last time and it didn't disappoint on a second visit! It is a most beautiful place - I love all that moorish styling and with a new found mode of 'useful drawing' I had a great day!

Here are my 'surface patterns' from the day:

And a more painterly psychedelic study:

There was an exhibition by Subodh Gupta: The Imaginary Order of things at the Contemporary Art Gallery which was excellent. My favourite pieces from the show ticked the texture box that I have been collecting:

The window holes invited you into another world: 

There were other sculptures playing with mirrors/concealment:

The 'combine' sculptures were my most favourite:

Along with the simplistic vessel forms:

The composition

And the layering

I mean look at it - wow!

That's some more details to add to my list then...hanging, fixing, rope and thread

We discussed relief painting in ceramics during the tutorial and ideas behind installation. I think this is the area I want to explore with my work. Although I would like to try lots of other materials, I can save some of that for later. Having enjoyed working with ceramics over the past few years I would like to challenge my current uses of it and perhaps incorporate more drawing... a good day though, on lots of levels, it's off to the sugar factory tomorrow - yippee!

The Dinner Party (from designing to install)

I have neglected my updates on here of late, but with sell out performances of The Dinner Party this weekend I thought it right to re-establish contact and chart the design and install of the piece. 

After meeting with Ella and Stuart to discuss ideas, I was given a set of objects that had been collected through research dinners and donations. This was a rather odd selection ranging from brass ornaments to cookie cutters (?!) but it was from this collection that I had to consider the centrepiece for the 4 metre long table. 

The location for the piece was at George House B&B and the collection of objects consisted of: 

brass ornaments

fabric t-light holders

faux-flower vase

cookie-cutters

plastic water bottles

stacked playing cards

and fresh gladioli

My initial thoughts were that I wanted to include * everything * that had been donated; recycling and reusing as much as possible, from drying out the flower heads to cutting up plastic bottles. Resourcefulness was going to be key to this project as there was a very small budget to pay for materials. I really enjoyed the challenge though, and finally had some use for all those things I have held on to over the years! 

So, I began drawing out some ideas: 

I pressed the gladioli: 

And on the minimal budget took a trip to the 99p store where I found a bumper pack of doilies...

these got a new lick of paint!

The bottles got cut up and doilies attached. 

I then secured a cork in the neck of each bottle so that they could stand on their head. This also provided an elevation for placing an LED t-light, which made them look pretty smart.

 There was also a set of pencils donated, so I cut these up and gave them a painted tip. 

Leaving them to dry on top of some corks, I really liked the look of this set up, so whilst I was waiting I had a brief sketch whilst playing around with some new ink nibs - I'm quite pleased with the result:

Dance4 had requested that the audience members would have something to take away at the end/part of the performance. With this in mind I created a decorative envelope that included a postcard (with inscription), flower pressing, pencil, and interactive doilie! The idea here being that the audience could write down some thoughts on the doilie and leave it with the piece, creating an ever expanding centrepiece that becomes a growing 'interactive' conversation.

I collected all the re-purposed objects for install:

The card stack has been dis-assembled and made in place holders; the cookie cutters fashioned into a t-light holder and the flower pressings left to be scattered across the length of the table.

Then it was time for the install -  it looked great!

initial layout

a scattering of the dried petals

the take-away keepsakes in their place holders

So there you have it - an opulent looking table setting, all ready for a great evening's performance! 

Overall, this has been a really interesting project for me....To be working collaboratively on a project that is out of my comfort zone; to be reacting to a collection of objects and repurposing materials anew, whilst creating an outcome on such a small budget - it has been just the challenge I've needed to get my head into gear for UNI YEAR 3! 

I even had a photo taken for the Derbyshire Times so all in all a brilliant opportunity!

There are hopes for the Dinner Party to become a travelling performance so fingers crossed and watch this space!

End of Year Assessment

What's that you say? Year Two finished....ALREADY?! 

That's right, it's assessment day and I can't believe again how quick this has come round again! What an amazing year though. I feel so excited and happy that I am doing all this right now :)

Having finally got round to achieving some finished objects and items for assessment (yay!) here is my space, and I am very proud of it:

latex, surface and glaze samples boards

additional samples and plaster moulds

And here are some of my chosen few, this is what's exciting me for the journey ahead:

another lovely bubbling

a bisque fired finish which has challenged my notion of 'what is finish on a non-functional object'

and my favourite Latex and Ceramic combinations....

..that show the direction of where I'd like to be heading next year

Really excited for where this all might lead and looking forward to the long summer. I'm off on a drawing trip to Gdansk in a few weeks so will be up with drawings from that soon! Happy holidays, and hopefully some sunshine (?!), 

lots of love, 

Decorative Arts, BA (Hons), Year Two  x

Mouldmaking, Slipcasting, Visualising and, Assessment!

It's nearing the end of term, I am due to present my work for assessment on Monday and as it's been a while since I've updated, here are some pictures of what I've been up to:

By simplifying my movement drawings to the essence of the act,
I formed these into copper wire.

Into the wire I used expanding foam
which created some interesting organic like shapes.

From these I made some plaster moulds which I then used for slip-casting in porcelain

The foam objects were quite complex in shape
and suffered from a  lot of undercuts in the casting process

this resulted in a lot of tears and breaks in the casts

but as a collection they worked well together

Once fired I experimented with how they might look with lighting inside them.

Visualization was an essential part of this project as the work was intended for a large-scale installation. Here are images of the casts in 'situ':

a stumble-upon installation in an only rum distillery

and a suggestion as large scale stage set for a dance/physical theatre performance.

So, with Year Two, Term One coming to a close, here's my space all set up for assessment - wish me luck!