Project 2: Place

Proposal

For the second project I will be constructing a sculpture to house my bad memories. Memories have transformative power.  We use our memories to help guide us in decision-making, reasoning and justification.  Memories can trigger change and encourage awareness.  I am interested in looking at the objects that trigger my memory and the emotional responses I have to those objects. I don’t usually reflect on memories all at once, so this space will be the imaginative space that houses all my bad memories when I am not consciously considering them, as if they live together and pop into my consciousness when needed remind me of experiences. The memory reminders serve to better my communication with others, influence my decision and give me purpose.  In these objects I find happiness, contentment, a sense of belonging and purpose. 

I will build a rectangular sculpture out of found objects, wood, and things I find in the junkyard. I will use transfer pictures onto the wood inside of the box, objects will fill the interior space.  There will be enough room inside for a head to enter from underneath and look around. The sculpture will be built off of the wall to indicate that it is only part of a larger structure; these memories are only part of my world.  The exterior of the piece will look like a loosely compiled addition to the wall, an obscure architectural piece. The viewer will have to explore the piece to know that there is an opening underneath. They will need to engage their bodies in motion in order to see what is inside.  The entrance is readily accessible but it isn’t on display, that is the relationship I have with my memories.  I intend to leave cracks throughout the external structure in order to let light in.  I am interested in putting a light bulb that flickers within the space. I don’t want it to have a switch, for I don’t believe we necessarily decide when to access those interior spaces.

QuickFire

Place and Space Analysis

There are many ways in which both place and space interact with and become art.  Place refers to a physical setting, a geographic location. A place is transformed into a space when there is presence.  For me a good reference is the parking place versus the parking space.  Parking place implies the garage itself, a specific location   A parking space is held by one individual; its role is more personal.  The parking space implies a kind of presence, which is what space has everything to do with.  Space is created out of presence, memory, inhabitance, or the history of.

Artists use a vast array of approaches to engage with ideas of place and space.  One way that we explored in class was creating a site-specific artwork.  Site specificity is a style of creating work that is for a specific place, with pre existing features.  Artists making site specific work in order to compliment, critique or bring awareness to the characteristics of the place or the functions of the place.

In Berlin there is a car dealership that boasts its country’s flag in the middle of the lot.  At night the flag is lit in a way that its reflection hits a tall building across the street.  After seeing the flag’s image on the otherwise naked building, an artist set out to create a piece that would host or give creative context to the flag. The flags shadow existed unintentionally, the artist saw the reflection and created an intentional piece that would provide a context for the flag.

Spaces are places real, imagined or representational. Louise Bourgeois is famous for her creations of representational space. In her sculptures, which are often referred to as environments, she explores her memories of childhood by creating spaces that linger in her mind.  These spaces are traumatic expressions of situational experiences that are personal and autobiographical – however, even through her abstractions the spaces is relatable, accessible and viewer experiences the space viscerally. 

Vito Acconci investigates place and space by exploring the boundaries between the public and private domains of life. Furthermore, his work prompts questions regarding the when space becomes place and when place becomes space.  In Following Piece, Acconci chooses one person to follow until they enter a private space. “Acconci’s intentions were not subjective but much more systematic—they constituted an exploration of the private and public fields that occur in every social space.”  Acconci’s work helps to decipher between the lines of place and space and how we define them culturally.
             

Intention Statement

For project two my goal was to create a representational space that housed my bad memories. In this piece bad memories are specifically related to those that have caused trauma, fear, or loss. Memories provide our minds with the existence of the past; they help guide us through our decisions in the present. I wanted to create a physical space that I could go to access my memories.  The space allows me to treat the memories as if they were objects that I could explore to gain understanding of the present. The memories serve as a reminder of the relevance of experience.  The original proposal for the project involved a space where viewers could enter from underneath.  When the viewer stood up he/she would be inside of a dimly lit box filled with objects that represent different bad memories. I became very hung up on the entrance of the box It seemed to intimate, too autobiographical.  I felt as though my thoughts were being violated, as if the box was my body and giving people free access to it was mistreating the moments. Maybe scattering the objects that haunt me (and give me strength) within a space was too real for me, in the way that they are scattered in my head – I don’t want to give that much of myself – I wanted to stage the viewing experience. 

I built a model stage as the place in which I could exhibit a memory. Theater is all about the illusion of reality. Providing a stage for my memories gave me full control of their presentation, similar to the role of the director.  I made it look worn and old, somewhat forgotten but not desert – like the memory objects displayed. I decided to include objects from one memory instead of multiple; I chose a saucepan and entangled it with some hair. This piece hung just roughly a quarter inch from the platform below to instigate the feelings of tension. I chose to layer the exterior in boards and then cover it with wire in order to promote its inaccessibility for the viewer.  By making the space seem quietly forbidden I am enticing people to look more closely, naturally when its something we aren’t supposed to touch or see we are more inclined to look.  There is plenty of room to add detail in this sculpture.  Hand crafted moments were very successful in this piece; many small choices I made had prominent effects.  For example, not screwing the top right piece in all of the way directs the eye angularly to the moment at the top left where the front object hangs slightly off.

Having placed the objects on a stage, it felt as if they were only part of the story.  Usually when one is in front of a stage there is a lot of action and entertainment, a narrative performance, but as the viewer peers through the caged structure the scene is still, there are little clues regarding further narrative. This expectation created by the stage is one that is determined by the viewers association with a given place.  I used that association with space to my advantage in denying the given expectation of space. This reminds me a little of Cindy Sherman and her film stills.  Sherman’s photographs are captivating and seductive because they have the reminisce of a story, the create endless narrative possibilities.

I feel as though this sculpture creates narrative possibilities.  In those possibilities a tension is created that leaves the viewer grasping for more, while contemplating the scene before them. The piece feels mysterious; it is compelling and alluring but tough and frightening at the same time. The sculpture provides a tension in the viewer, as do the collaboration of chosen objects. It begs the viewer to ask questions and grasp for more context.