Sculpture Studio Spring 2010

Project 1: Process

For my process-oriented sculpture, I wanted to make a design that was visually stimulating in that it addressed the limitations of optics. In order to do this, my specific idea was to make a 3-dimensional grid in which string would attach to points. From the front view, the strings would be on either a horizontal or vertical plane. From the side view, as well as when one looks down onto or up into the object, it would be clear that these strings stayed on their same vertical or horizontal path from the front, but were actually on diagonals within their planes. In order to make this work more clearly about the process involved, I kept the materials raw. There is a trace of the grid that I drew on the bottom piece of wood, and the string’s path as well as the way it is attached is clear. I also made equal notches in all of the dowels so that I could use them as a point to attach the string to, if I chose to do so.

To make my 3D grid, I had to design it in a way that I hadn’t previously thought through. My ideas of how to make a grid, whether using chicken wire, or simply laying out gridded paper around my structure all had flaws that I would be unable to work through. So, I cut two 20.5” square pieces of plywood that were to be connected by 20.5” dowels. I made a 4” grid on each piece of wood, and at every point, I drilled holes ¾ of the way through the bottom piece of plywood for the thinner dowels, and drilled all the way through the top piece of wood. There are four thicker dowels in each corner to support the top piece of wood, and in order to attain that support; I drilled ¾ of the way through both the bottom and top pieces of wood. The top piece of wood was to rest on the thicker, outer dowels. I then made notches every four inches in each of the skinnier dowels, sanded them, and put them through holes on the top board, and secured them in their holes in the bottom board. My last step was to attach string to different notches, sticking with my plan to keep the planes horizontal and vertical on one side, and diagonal from other angles.

This process sounds almost flawless, but it wasn’t. I originally made a 2” grid on the pieces of wood, but then realized that I didn’t have enough dowels to use them every two inches. Also, I had to use a hand-drill to drill holes all the way through the top board, but I wasn’t precise enough. So, when I put the dowels through them, they were crooked. I had to go back through and make straight holes that ended up being slightly wider than the dowels, and they weren’t as secure as I had imagined. Also, when I was making notches in the skinny dowels, I would occasionally make the notch too big. So, when I attached string to that dowel, it would pull the dowel, almost breaking it. I had to redo my process of cutting the skinny dowels to length and then notching them.

After looking at my final piece, I feel it looks unfinished. It looks like a rough draft of a sculpture that is meant to be much bigger and use more lasting materials. The dowels add to the unfinished look, but they do also give viewers a type of rubric: when they line their eyes up with the dowels, making the dowels appear to be in a straight line, they are also aligning the string on its vertical plane and thus noticing how the perspective shifts depending on which angle they look at the sculpture. This does, however, benefit me in that the process is visible. My optical idea also comes across very clearly, which I am pleased with. If I could make this sculpture again, I would make it on a larger scale and potentially use metal instead of string. I would assign points for viewers to stand at in order for them to see the sculpture from the different angles that I intended viewers to see it from. It is obvious now on a small scale that viewers should walk around the sculpture, but on a large scale, I would want to make that more clear.