When it came down to testing the hanging method of suicide on my largest sculpture, reality settled in that one piece of rope simply just won't support it and may damage the sculpture in the process. So as a plan B I will have this flower to represent the lead in cause of death in the UK and Wales which is of natural causes which can be anything from dying in your sleep to dying of a disease or heart attack. So the piece will remain plain - which I think is for the best for this piece.
Whilst looking at my smallest sculpture that represents 'falling/jumping in front of a moving object' I felt like there was something missing again. Something extra needed to be added - and then someone suggested putting the tyre itself in with the piece to make it more obvious and aesthetically complete. This for me completed the piece, producing something that I didn't think I was capable of and was frankly out of my comfort zone but I pushed myself to do my work differently and I would say that I succeeded in doing just that! After testing the bleed I began to apply the same method of suicide to my larger sculpture to act as 'poison' which is the second most common method of suicide in the UK. It was fascinating to watch the ink grow down the catdboard as it bled through the wet surface, spreading like veins, killin off the flower. Overall I am extremely impressed with the end result of this piece, having a daunting ephemeral feel and appearance to it, getting the viewer to think about death and life. For the large version of the suicide method of 'poisoning' I wanted to test how the ink would bleed on cardboard before I done it on the real thing and here are the experiments! I dampened the surface of the cardboard as dabbed on some ink and watched as it grew, spreading down the surface like a disease infesting the body! It was amazing to watch and can confirm that I will use this on the sculpture! After testing the tyre tracks with paint on, on paper, I then carried out the same task on the real thing(sculpture). I like how this has turned out making it more obvious that it has been run over as the tyre mark is more prominent. Clearly showing the viewer that it has been killed and is dead, acting as a metaphor to real life. After the tyre print didn't come out very well after running my sculpture over, I gained access to a spare tyre and covered it in black paint - as you can see above the left is where I applied pressure and the right is just pushing it along. Personally I feel the left print looks better and will apply pressure when going over the sculpture itself. After testing the miniature sculptures I decided to put the methods to the test on the larger sculptures - the first one being falling/jumping in front of a moving object. I acquired the services of one of my fellow uni pals and using her car, run over my smallest rose sculpture. The pictures above are snapshots from a video of the event that I recorded as it happened. You may be thinking, how did it feel to ruin your work, but I don't see it like that, I feel that I'm getting an important message out there that death occurs all the time in the nastiest circumstances but we have to deal with and accept it, and to be honest it was oddly satisfying! I am pleased with how it turned out but I feel the tyre mark needs to be more prominent so may have to go over it in black paint. Right time to get cracking on with the test pieces! Using cardboard on mini versions of the large sculptures to test aesthetic and quality of the work and to get a taste of what the larger versions would look like. With the first Mini version, I used the suicide method of 'hanging' - tying a knot around one of the petals and hanging it from a beam of wood in my back garden to look like a real hanging. I like the way this turned out and how it twisted in the wind but I feel as though this may not work large scale as the piece wouldn't be supported very well with all its weight in one place. So this is something I need to think about. With the second Maquette, I used the suicide method of 'poisoning' by blanching and dripping black Indian ink to resemble poison in the body over the flower from a height; creating blotches over the petals making something quite ephemeral. Although I like how this turned out and I liked the process, for the large one I might consider bleeding the ink with water into the cardboard to give the impression of the poison spreading through the body; killing it off. With the third Version I ran over with a wheel barrow to resemble the suicide method of 'falling in front of a moving object'. After doing this the piece flattened and appeared to have been through a serious accident. Obviously either the larger scale flower I will have to use a larger machinery to pull off the effect of getting run over properly - perhaps leaving a tyre mark in its wake. Now I have a new line of direction, I decided to look up statistics on the most common methods of suicide in the UK and Wales. After looking on a few websites it surprised me to find out that firearm is not the most common use of suicide methods, but then again guns are hard to get hold of in the UK as you need a lisence. Anyway, the most common three methods of suicide is suffocating/hanging, then poisoning and lastly falling/jumping in front of a moving object. To make this relatable to the public and to real life I will use this information and use proceed with these methods of suicide on my maquettes and large sculptures. Now I've completed the three sculptures I can't help but feel that something is missing. As beautiful as they are, am I getting too attached to the fact that I want to make them appealing and in the process loosing the meaning of why I'm producing these in the first place? I want to show death in a new light to get the viewer to accept their own mortality, but do these plain sculptures really radiate that emotion and feeling I want to get across? So to make sure I was getting across my initial intention: of death I took a step back and spoke with my tutors, after talking it was decided to put these sculptures through the process of death. For example through suicide, murder, accidental and natural causes and show this through the flowers; using them as a metaphor to human life; making it easier for the viewer to contemplate. Next steps: - produce some maquettes - test some killing methods of the small versions - what ever works best- do on the large scale pieces. |
Ellen HardyThis blog will outline my ongoing artistic practice throughout my second&third year at university. Archives
March 2016
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