Wrapping it up

This project has been really incredible and I am sad to see it come to an end – but relieved too!

I remember right at the start being completely overwhelmed by the assignment and the process we were expected to go through – there was no real “final product” and I found that stressed me out at the beginning.
It’s been really great to be forced to work in a very different way to how I usually work - on the computer with planning and an end result in mind.
This project – especially in these later weeks has really shown me how much can be accomplished – and how worthy and rewarding it is to collaborate and work on a big project with lots of different people, ideas, and ways of working/styles.
The themes we came up with of Hidden, Power, and Ending provided us with a nice platform to start forming ideas and it’s really cool to see how different people’s interpretations have been. Seeing work go and just be erased has sometimes been really scary but seeing it all come together today was a really incredible and rewarding experience.
I think undertaking my big concept for hidden in the space that I did for the first theme really gave an initial presence and feeling to our space – I think we all were relieved to see those gosh-awful doors be dealt with.
In the second themed week I was really pleased to see how we were all picking up on little qualities of each work when producing our own. I was picking up on the triangles and prisms that Skye and Mikayla had worked with. And it worked really well to create a subtle continuum.
This final week was a real collaborative effort and at first I wasn't sure how we were going to do it – because we all still wanted to address our final theme in some way but Tuesday was really big day for us with decision making and strategies and we all really respected each other and our opinions which was really great. We all made an effort to compromise for the good of the space in its entirety and it all came together really nicely.

I really like how this brief forced us to address and respond to a space and how we have achieved a really beautiful studio that incorporates so many different artistic styles that all work really well in relation to each other. The term “collaborative assemblage mural” really accurately defines what we have produced in the space.

Highlights:

ENDING!

So today is final hand in!!!

This morning I came in and positioned my stool for easy access to the periscope.
I replaced my LED candle in the hole in the wall and now you can tap the wall and the light comes on, then when you've finished looking you can tap the wall again and the light turns off.

I constructed the final addition to the wall of pyramids. I wanted them to really come to an "end" on the floor as this was the theme I was considering in the final week of collaboration work.

I was really pleased with the reveal of the question mark's relationship to the exit sign, and how nicely it related to Matt's question mark from week 1 which was then re-worked this week.

The small changes that were made after crit were:
-the extension of my pyramids
-the removal of Mikayla's dove and the shift in positioning of the triangle
-the slight re-arrangement of the black triangles "hiding" the coloured triagles
-the removal of a couple of birds
-the addition of little scenes to Courtney's structure
-the piling of cardboard and dirt around the base of Courtney's structure
-the crisp line adding to edge the floor triangles that bridge between the spaces
-the change to red string for the hanging of the door knob
-the addition of the stool for the periscope

I took a video of our space to give a feeling of how it all works together.

Monday crit and prep for final hand in on Tuesday

This shows the wall space where Skye and I had been working on Friday. We were stoked when we came in this morning and saw what Mikayla had done with her triangles! We decided that my small pyramid in the space wasn't in an effective position any more so removed it, but kept the one that co-existed with Skye's mirrored pyramid.

We discussed today activating the lower region of my space - which I had planned to do today anyway - but it was good to have confirmation from lecturers and peers regarding this. Rather than adding colour like I had been thinking though, we all decided that that would "over-state" the point and "over-link" the room. I am planning on adding one more tiny pyramid sitting directly on the floor tomorrow with some broken stick pieces around it.

I forgot to reveal my question mark before crit this morning so made a point of waiting until class had ended to reveal it as a surprise for Tuesday. I really liked this - it made me feel like Banksy - rebelling in my own quiet and discreet way.

I also had to touch up the black paint on my doors today as over the past fortnight the doors have been in use and has tarnished the flat black appearance.

The other major discussions we had today regarded Mikayla's bird/sky scene in the space above her original triangle work. We all worked together and ended up removing the bird and re-arranging the triangle along with one of Skye's mirrored triangles to abstractify the space a bit more and not "over-state" the bird theme. 

We painted out a few of Sam's black birds.

And we also hung Skye's door knob with Matt's red string.

Hope, Courtney and Jennifer were planning to collaborate to make their wall fell succinct as one, and one with the space as well.

Excited for tomorrow morning!!!

The pyramid wall

Thanks to Skye helping me, I got some more hooks in the ceiling to hang more pyramids off.
I rearranged the ones I had used for my response to POWER as now that I was looking at deconstruction for ENDING their arrangement was quite right.
The below images represent how the area was looking at the end of Friday (10/10/14).

I attached one small broken pyramid to the wall/pipe - I am now thinking of doing a few more attached to the wall somehow.

When I left the studio on Friday, I felt like I wasn't quite finished but that I also needed some time away in order to get a fresh perspective on the space.

Progressing!

During the week I built lots more partial/deconstructed pyramids and sprayed them with the last of my gold spray paint.

I took them in with me on Friday and organised for Skye H. to help me with getting up the ladder and putting some hooks in the ceiling. She's a legend! :P

I also took lots of extra kebabs as I wasn't sure what else I wanted to do.

On the train in the morning I was struck by a brainwave when thinking about our space and how the birds have picked up strings of triangles, and how I could build some of those triangles up into 3D pyramids.

When I got to the studio I saw that Mikayla had already painted the triangles but I got in touch with her and she was happy for me to build off a few and she would paint them on Sunday. So I decided to do that first.

I also added some dimension to one of the mini triangles over by Matt's first work.

After I had been working dimensionally on Mikayla's triangles Skye and I decided it would be a good idea to have a few 3D pyramid type triangles on the wall between hers and Mikayla's work as well.

She was spreading her mirrored triangles across that wall and I we combined one of ours to create a really beautiful reflection.

We decided we needed a few of Mikayla's coloured triangles on that wall space as well so masking taped a few off where we thought they would look good for her to do when she goes in on Sunday.

Getting started on the final week!

During Tuesday's class we talked about how to introduce the spreading of colour, and decided to use Sam's birds to "pick up" some triangles and take them around the space.

We decided the first move would be to get all the tables and stools etc. out of the room and get it cleaned out so that we could establish the space a bit more and get the floors painted.
After class on Tuesday, me and both the Skye's painted the floor.

At first we were concerned that we may have to do multiple coats as it was looking really blotchy/uneven but as the paint dried we were stoked to see it was finishing up reasonably flat.

We weren't 100% sure what was happening with Maddie's bridging as there was discussion about maybe rather than doing bridging on the ground painting a triangle on the floor and having the fabric structure above. So we decided to edge our painting in a triangular form so that it could be worked with no matter what ended up happening.

Starting Week 3 of themed work

We all entered this week with the assumption that we needed to do an individual response to whichever theme we hadn't yet tackled. For me that was ENDING.
However, Maddie decided that rather than work on an individual theme, what would be a better move for our class would be to focus more on collaborating and making your space work - and making the space as a whole work collectively. So whilst we still had things to work on individually this week was all about working together to get the best result for everyone.

In regards to my pyramid work from last week, Maddie and I discussed how to improve it, incorporate ENDING, and make relations to the rest of the space.
- We talked about deconstruction, and making part pyramids having them come to an end - this would reference Matt's work with the puzzle pieces etc.
- The possibility of painting/drawing on the wall - painting the shadows?
- Introducing grey/purple from Mikayla's bunting triangles?

Group thoughts in our space:
- Maddie's bridging - she is looking at doing a floor sculpture that you have to walk over, and potentially doing a structure from her web to the beam as well to give a real tunneled feeling, and provide a definite change/entrance to our space.
- Paint the floors and white out any imperfections - we've decided our area is more about clean, elegant lines, rather than the history of the space which is being utilised on the other side of the room.
This would also help Maddie's bridging feel more significant. There would be a direct change between the spaces.
- We decided that the sponging around the edge of Mikayla's work from last week wasn't working in our space, and it needed to go back to the clean lines of the square.
- Courtney's bubbles around the anatomical bird also weren't working in our space - the blue didn't link in with other colours in the space, and the circular shape also wasn't fitting with our aesthetic.
- Hope decided to get rid of her camera obscura which was sad but she wasn't to make smaller kind of head versions, so will have boxes along our bare wall which should be really cool. The squareness of them will also work really well in the space.
- Skye H. is going to bridge the gap between her and Mikayla's work by editing her fabric so it doesn't hang in a straight line, and also extend her mirrored prisms out to meet up with Mikayla's triangles.
- Skye T. is looking to adjust the hanging of her door, and looking into the idea of a doormat with the circular pattern that relates to Matt's puzzle pieces.
- Matt is going to do a mini scape in the corner below Issac's first work. This will provide a good link to the other side of our space.
- We need to introduce hints of colour to the side of the room I have been working on, and the other side needs to introduce blacks and greys.

Rationale & class response/discussion for second week POWER

My interpretation of power was to look at the power generated by pyramids.
This responded to the triangular themes happening within the room as well as portraying a unique type of power.
I reinforced the theme by using the power of light to create shadows on the wall.
I spray painted my pyramids gold to reflect the history of pyramids - built from sand - and I also thought gold made them seem like stars in the dark gloomy sky I had painted the previous week.

This week we did things a little bit differently and had guest Simon Morris (one of my artist inspirations!) along to talk to us and feedback on our work.
He seemed pleased with the placement of my installation in respect to Mikayla's work on the opposite wall.
It was brought up that the gold combined nicely with the colourings in Skye's door that was hung right next to where my pyramids were.
Maddie wondered about the reasoning behind the height they were hung at.
I wanted them high firstly so that they weren't a danger to people walking through the space - also because they are reasonably fragile. But I also thought they created good energy up high and it made the space feel bigger and taller.

End of the second week of themed work

My 'finished' work in response to POWER

 

View from the ground of the pyramids

 

The light source used to create the shadowing

        

Video of the turning pyramids

Installing my pyramids

On Sunday I took my pyramids in along with all the other bits and bobs, all prepped to hang my pyramids. I was intending to hang them very low - with the lowest almost touching the floor - where the area I had just painted black, met the white wall that had the anatomical bird on it. I thought it would add to the "horizon line" landscape I was trying to suggest. Unfortunately when I arrived at the studio, Sam had painted a little door with a flock of birds in that space so I had to rethink my location.
At this point I decided to maybe work with the other extreme of having them sit very high rather than low.
Looking around the room I noted that the space on the wall between my original set of doors, and Skye's hung door was bare. I considered this space and liked the fact that it faces opposite to the wall where Mikayla had done her triangle work in week 1. I attempted to put hooks in the ceiling but when I got up the ladder discovered a fear that I wasn't aware of, luckily my mum was able to help me out and get the hooks in the ceiling. This also allowed me to stand on the ground and decide on the positioning of the pyramids.
I wanted them to be clustered so that the light would shadow as much of them as possible, but also because I think of power as being quite compact rather than spread.

I liked the view from beneath the pyramids as they kind of reminded me of stars, and I felt like being under them meant I absorbing the energy.

Pyramid POWER

So I still wanted to work with the idea of the power of pyramids as my interpretation of power. Time to go back to the drawing board as to how best to display my interpretation.
I decided to do a bit of research into their power and how it can be displayed.
I thought this site was pretty interesting: http://www.powerofpyramids.com/
I also did a youtube search and found this video which gave me an idea to move forwards with: How to make pyramid power free energy experiment (spinning, rotating, perpetual motion)

I didn't really like the use of straws but I decided to try swapping them out for kebab sticks.

So just using kebabs sticks and hot glue I constructed some pyramids to do some testing. I thought they looked pretty cool and was hoping they would turn!
On problem I had noted from the youtube video was that once the cotton had wound fully to one side, it couldn't un-turn. One way I thought about getting around this problem was to use little fishing spinners.

So with the spinners on them I tried using nylon on one, and cotton on the other.

Interestingly, for some reason the nylon didn't work with the pyramids and they wouldn't spin. The cotton on the other hand worked a treat.
One issue for the spinning was that the kebab sticks weren't very heavy and so didn't spin as well as the 2 metal ones I had. My grandfather had made some metal pyramids for my mum some time ago, and she was happy for me to use them as they would be my key spinning pyramids.
I wanted to make one quite large pyramid so got some doweling from Mitre10 to build a bigger one out of.

Making the base was simple enough but building the sticks to a point proved to be very difficult - hot glue was not sufficient for attaching the pieces and the nails were splitting the wood.

So I had to consider alternatives - maybe using a rope as the four points.

 I stitched the rope in but it didn't have a nice aesthetic so I dropped this idea.

Side note: I found it interesting that pyramids don't have to have a square base - you can have triangles on all sides and it still creates the same energy.

New ideas for POWER

Looking around our room, I felt like we needed to expand on the triangular themes which were inhabiting one side of the room in Skye and Mikayla's work.
So how to interpret that in power...
I remembered when I was younger and my mum had demonstrated the power of the pyramids.
The shape of the pyramid is said to create an energy, and I remembered she demonstrated it by holding a pendulum over the tip of it, and the pendulum would spin in circles.
I got her to show me again and I videoed it.

I was excited to see that it still worked and was thinking of creating a pyramid to have as a floor sculpture and have a pendulum strung from the ceiling above it. The longer the cord, the more freedom the pendulum would have to swing wider as well.

I was also thinking I might still be able to utilise my desire to use a light source of some form. I was wondering about hanging a curtain of fabric from the ceiling down to the floor around the exhibit - in the shape like Anthony McCall had his light beams - in a cone like shape - so that you have to go inside to witness it. Plus, then it would restrict the pendulum from flying out too wide. It would also mean I could cast shadows on the inside of the fabric.

I decided to test the pendulum by hanging it from a string above the pyramid - just to confirm that it would work.

Guess what?
It didn't work! :(
I was confused and guttered to find that the whilst the pyramid is an energy source, in order to make the pendulum swing it actually harnesses the human energy on the other end of the pendulum.

Initial idea generation for POWER

When I was starting my thinking process for responding to POWER, my immediate idea was going back to the lighting idea I had been considering when looking for inspiration.

I wanted to create a kind of lamp shade to put over one of the industrial lights to project something onto the floor.

I did some more image research to get inspired.

Google image result

I included this only because it was a very basic initial response to what I had in mind for creating a basic, beautiful shadow.

Kumi Yamashita

"I sculpt using light and shadow. I construct single or multiple objects and place them in relation to a single light source. The complete artwork is therefore comprised of both the material (the solid objects) and the immaterial (the light or shadow)." (http://www.kumiyamashita.com/light-and-shadow/)

Tim Noble & Sue Webster

SUNSET OVER MANHATTAN, 2003

Cigarette packets, tin cans shot by air gun pellets, wooden bench, light projector. (http://www.timnobleandsuewebster.com/sunset_manhattan_2003.html)

Paul Villinski 

"Paul Villinski, a professional photographer, has found some advantages of shadow as a source for artistic inspiration and as a very tool for their creation." (http://www.fludit.com/inspiration/the-shadow-art-photos-by-paul-villinski.html)

I was considering what I would want to project and thought about words, like strength, energy, power. I also thought about lightning bolt symbols, and then I thought about the history of our building and it's automotive background and thought about how beautiful it would be to project a car engine as my expression of "power".

When I talked through this idea with my family they brought to my attention the fact that lampshades work well when the light is reasonably close to the expanse of space where you want the projection/shadow. With the distance between the industrial lights and the floor we decided that it probably wouldn't provide the nice crisp shadow that I was looking for. So back to the drawing board.

Responding to the critique

I really liked the idea of extending the darkness around my work so I let the black take over the area under the fuse box aswell - I was considering letting it creep up the wall between the fuse box and the added wall but decided that I quite liked the way it gave a kind of horizon line for Courtney's bird. I also tried to consider elements of her work when doing this by painting my light fittings black but leaving the switches white. Painting the wall black was a lot more difficult than doing the doors as the concrete has a very uneven texture and doesn't hold the paint as well.

I really liked the extension of the blackness. 

I then wanted to address the issue of having a stool or some way to make it easier for people to access the periscope.

I found this step stool at Mitre10 and thought it was perfect! With it's black base and white spots it worked nicely with my light switches and again with Courtney's bird. Becuase it is a very nice transportable stool I haven't brought it in yet as I want to make sure it is available for the exhibition.

Space as at the end of Week 1

This was just so I had a reference of what was happening in the rest of my space for when I started thinking about my next theme to address which was POWER.

Rationale & class response/discussion for first week HIDDEN

As my ideas for responding to "hidden" progressed I got really into the concept of hide and seek.
This was part of my reasoning for painting the doors black - hide and seek is all about delving into the dark hiding places where no one will find you so I wanted my whole theme to feel very dark and almost spooky. The 'face' in the clouds is creepy - kind of like a ghost - which for me, reminded me of when I was little and I played hide and seek and I'd be in a really good hiding spot but once you have been there a while it starts to feel a bit creepy. When I was painting the top scene, I had Katharina Grosee in mind as the 'clouds' spread. I worked outwards from the 'face' and decided to extend upwards quite a bit more than I originally had planned. I felt compelled to embrace the existing hole that was in the wall and my periscope added to the idea of peeking and something being hidden. Once the periscope was made I had to think about what people were actually going to see when they peered inside. I liked the idea of a poem, as it seemed kind of child like - tying into the concept of hide and seek - but it also allowed me to add another element to the periscope of having the "hidden" text at the entrance. I had to keep the safety signs accessible/readable which didn't quite work in with my theme, but I added in a Banksy inspired surprise which I will reveal on Monday the 13th. When I was painting the doors, I purposefully didn't use tape around the edges of the glass etc as I don't find masking tape actually ends up giving the best clean line but I was also curious to see how it would look with rough edges. When I stood back, I personally wasn't sure about the rough edges but all other comments I received were positive towards the rugged edges, and their relation to the blotchy/dripping/roughness of the painting above.

The discussion with my lecturers and classmates highlighted a few points for me;
- the periscope felt too high, whilst the taller members in the class could see in perfectly, for most it was a stretch which meant they couldn't fully interpret what they were seeing because they weren't on the best angle. Maddie suggested creating a step stool which would become a part of the installation.
- there was discussion around the signs and the glass and whether the rough paint was good or not. Many agreed that it related well to what was happening above.
- We were asked to consider how our work relates to the work around us. Courtney's bird with the exposed anatomy actually ended up working really well next to mine as they both had a dark feeling to them and there looks to be some potential as to how these pieces could work together.
- One suggestion from my classmates that I liked was the idea of extending the darkness.
- If we were allowed to use spray paints etc I would quite like to rework the cloud scene and have it extend and wrap even further like Katharina Grosse's installation at Ikon.

End of the first week of themed work!

My 'finished' work in response to HIDDEN.
I say finished in inverted commas as art can always be improved/worked on and it was really a matter of getting my response to a semi-complete stage so that I could get feedback on Monday.
These are the images of my space as at Tuesday 30th October.

The full view of my space.

A closer view to show the periscope.

A close up to show the poem written onto the periscope and show the candle light seen in the other end.

 A wider view to look at my work in relation to the work done beside me.