3-D Design
Steve Gouthro
This portfolio features a number of three dimensional problems and responses by the various members of the class for the winter term, 2009.
Altered Object
Take a common object or utensil. Using paint, textures, or other additions alter the object to change its implied use or meaning. It may be given a ritual connotation, or simply a different "use". It should be sturdy enough to withstand more than one handling and of a scale that can be held and examined with two hands.
1. Linda Tame, altered object, mixed media, 2009
Here a decorative cup and saucer are impaled on a metal rod to transform them into a seed container for feeding birds.
2. Stephanie Worth, altered object, mixed media, 2009
Stephanie converts a paintbrush to an artist's multi-tool that could be used as both pencil and paint brush. With its magenta plume, the piece has a tactile appeal and feels very appropriate.
3. Jordan Tame, altered object, mixed media, 2009
Like Stephanie Worth, Jordan has converted an artist's mark making tool, in this case a mechanical pencil. Only here the character of the pencil has been changed entirely. The artist has boiled and eviscerated the object and presented it with all of its contents, leads included, in a plastic box which evokes a museum display case. The converted pencil takes on the character of an exotic insect or futuristic, robotic creature, presented for our contemplation.
Kinetic
While works of art frequently portray movement, kinetic sculptures actually do move. Movement can be caused by the wind, magnetic fields, jets of water, electric motors, variations in the intensity of light, or the active manipulation of the object by the observer.
Construct a three dimensional work in which physical movement becomes the subject. There are no media restrictions or scale restrictions. Movement may be effected by any means noted in the first paragraph above, or by any other means.
4. Ashley Heinrichs, kinetic sculpture, mixed media, 2009
In her painting thesis and in printmaking Ashley Heinrichs has used materials from her immediate environment as departure. While still conscious of the original functions and cultural meanings of these castoff objects, she seeks to seeks to recontextualize them into artworks of formal beauty. This kinetic sculpture presents old vinyl L.P.s as a nostalgic technological bouquet. Powered by a fan, the piece rotates slowly on its pedestal.
5. Kristen Perrott, kinetic sculpture, mixed media, 2009
Kristen presents a pair of mating rattlesnakes mounted on a red velvet pedestal. The bodies of the snakes are made from actual sloughed off skins of snakes and the rattle is in fact a rattlesnake rattle. The movement of the rattle is provided by the internal workings of a sex shop vibrator, thus adding a metaphoric unity of concept and the created object. The materials- velvet, snakeskin, and rattle, are simultaneously sensually attractive and repugnant.
The Body as Reference
As human beings we relate to the world around us through our bodies. They are the measure of scale (inches were originally the length of a knuckle, feet a foot, yards a pace, etc.) the standard of beauty and the point from which we look out into the universe. The human body has been the main subject for artistic creation since art was first made. Many contemporary artists have moved away from traditional sculptural representations of the body by using casting as a way to imbue their work with a magical evocation of the living being. Some reference the body through it's many shells: clothing, hair, furniture, etc. Performance artists use the actual physical body as the medium for their creative practice, with the props used left behind as artifacts to form a material record of the ephemeral event. Others such as Evan Penny use traditional sculptural means combined with modern technology and sensibility to create works that give viewers an almost altered awareness of how they perceive bodies and how they live in them.
Create a 3 Dimensional work of art that uses any of the above premises represent the human presence.
6, 6.a. Anne Boychuk, the body as reference, mixed media, 2009
Anne Boychuk, installed this work in the tunnel of the library building across from the Drama Department storage room. She was conscious of this placement when she created the work whose long title runs along the wall, an integral part of the work: "In the presence of others we become what they think we are... We become what you think we are." These white faces emerge from the identically coloured wall like floating masks or the faces of individuals just coming onto view. Anne observes that like actors, how we appear is affected by who is doing the looking. The white, unrefined faces are open for the viewer to "flesh in", to ascribe character and motivation.
7. Monika Sormova, the body as reference, mixed media, 2009
Monika's surrealist chair with human legs is a bizarre hybrid that seems to offer comfort while at the same time asserting itself as an animated thing, about to move about the room in some crazy dance. The legs and shoes on the chair's right are male; those on the left, female, indicating that they must walk (or dance) through life side by side.
8. John Steppler, the body as reference, mixed media, 2009
In John Steppler's self portrait, the artist appears in silhouette, seated beneath a shadowy tree, contemplating the vista before him. But the image of the artist takes shape from the shadows cast by a seemingly random pile of objects from the artist's studio: paint tubes, scrapers, gesso pail, brushes and the sweet grass of his aboriginal heritage. This is a fitting metaphor for the actions of the artist in creating a work of meaning from the chaos of experience.
9. Charles Ajani, the body as reference, mixed media, 2009
Charles engages in a discourse about identity and voyeurism with this pair of figures, both assembled from his own wardrobe. As such, both figures are shells of the artist and allow the viewer to piece together of the type of individual they represent. The front figure stoops over "Virtual Pose", a book of artist's nudes. Is this professional interest, or erotic stimulation? The figure behind points a camera at the other, raising questions about privacy and public surveillance.
10, 10a. Kate MacDonald, the body as reference, mixed media, 2009
In her sketch studies for this work, Kate's working title is "a reference for life, time". The life size cast of a head seems gigantic in contrast to the small dark central figure . This figure represents the present moment, the small fraction of time that is whole and certain. The shattered back of the head symbolizes the past, broken, hazy and indefinite, while the face is the future, big with possibilities, but filled with uncertainty. The rough surfaces and mottled metallic drips and splotches help to convey those events in flux where nothing is clearly defined.
11. Sarah Elliot, the body as reference, mixed media, 2009
Sarah's piece seeks to revivify the mundane by presenting it from an unusual vantage point. A commonplace event like finding a dropped penny on the winter sidewalk is experienced from the sidewalk's point of view. The arm and feet emerge from the distance; the fingers are splayed in a most natural way as one would gesture in order to retrieve the coin. Yet the whole work is inverted. We look down on this piece from above as we walk around it, so that it becomes a curious object and a narrative event at the same time.
Free Project
This was an open project with no specific parameters other than that the works deal with forms in space in some way.
12. Lauren Bell, free project, plumbers' pipes, paint, 2009
Many young artists appropriate materials from construction or mass consumption to make commentary on 21st century life, or simply to reconsider these materials for their aesthetic qualities. Lauren's piece is like a parody of a plumbing schema for a highrise apartment with pipes leading the eye in many directions. Although the work basically exists in one plane, the spaces between the pipes allow us to also experience it as a volume. The artist sees it as a post industrial fountain with rain entering through the top openings and water ejected from the open pipes like effluvia from a sewer system.
13. Suzanne Debassige, free project, twigs, hand made paper, 2009
The elements of this mobile by Suzanne Debassige were created by shaping and fastening sinewy tree branches and then stretching hand made paper across the gaps. The calligraphic shapes have the appearance of microscopic creatures, while the white and pink coloured paper evoke animal hides stretched to cure. We have here an organic abstraction firmly rooted in nature.
14, 14.a. Susan Knowling, free project, mixed media, 2009
Many artists over the past 40 years have created works of art that respond directly to the place in which they are situated. These works do not merely occupy a space like a statue in a town square, but actually affect how the viewer/participant perceives that space. They may be motivated by ecological concerns, social ideals, perceptual observations or be simply an aesthetic statement. Many, though not all, deal with issues of impermanence and permanence. This was the framework in which Susan created her environmental sculpture out of peanut brittle and bird seed. The two slabs were seen as offerings to the birds and squirrels. In form they allude to the human desire to build monuments, to record one's presence on the earth. Yet the materials are such that they will shortly be consumed. The sugar will melt in the sun and dissolve in the rain, while the seeds will be carried away by the beasts of the neighborhood. These gifts from nature’s bounty will be returned to her.