Sculpture Studio Spring 2010/Rachel Heiss |
Project 4: Self Designed |
In my final sculpture, my intention was to create something unreal from what is real. In doing so, I chose to manipulate my own facial expressions into expressions that I cannot physically make. I took pictures of me making different expressions (neutral, sad, surprised, happy) and when different parts of those expressions were combined, they created an all new unnatural facial expression. My sculpture is interactive, so I had to come up with a way to make that apparent. I didn’t make handles for each piece because they would not have laid flat if I had done so. Handles give the unspoken direction “open” and I needed something to do the same. In creating 8 stacks of parts of my face connected by a binder ring, I think it gave the message that each piece of wood was meant to be flipped in order to see what is underneath. I painted a different color on the underside of each expression so that when the pieces are flipped, they allow viewers to see when the expression created is a mixture of expressions, since they will see multiple colors, or a part of the same expression since they will see the same color. I am satisfied with the painting aspect of my piece. I think the expressions line up correctly and that the visible brush strokes make the transition from expression to expression more understandable, as opposed to crisp lines that might not have lined up. Brush strokes create a visually pleasing way of including the imperfections. I am less satisfied with how the actual structure of my sculpture turned out. The pieces don’t turn as easily as I had planned, which could have been fixed by drilling bigger holes. In retrospect, I would not have used Masonite boards because they only created problems for me. Every time I drilled through, the wood broke on the other side, and it did not create the clean surface that I initially thought it would. Overall I think my piece is successful in achieving my ultimate goal to create the unreal out of the real because of the brush strokes. |
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