“Faces watch from every angle. Enveloped.
Cold, bright light construct ebony shadows, spread on every inch of wall,
There are more, they still see you.
Surrounded by the colours of emotion,
How do you feel?”
–
Beth Radic
Category: What is Sculpture?
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Rilke was a highly influential modernist poet whose poems were full of imagery and romanticism. He was very inspired by Greek mythology and his opinions on religion, living in France, Switzerland and Prague. His work sounds mystical, usualy leaving the last line of his poems for the reader to think about and decipher.
His poems “Archaic Torso of Apollo” and “Moving Forward” have inspired me to use poetry as a document of my final project like he did with the sculpture of Apollo’s torso, although he documented this sculpture long after the original artist had made it.
This gives a different way to interpret my project and gives insight to my state of mind and the thinking behind my final piece, however still leaving the viewer to make up their own mind about how they feel.
Final Piece
From my prototype I managed to work out some flaws and fix them for my final piece. I realised that I needed to sew the tops of them to make them look more mask-like.
The light and shadows make the installation look very atmospheric like Sophie Cave’s Kelvingrove installation.
I had help hanging them up from the ceiling with invisible string, I then came back to the studio at around 7pm so that the room would be dark enough to use lights to create shadows with my faces which projected more faces on the wall – this looked very spooky.
Week Planner
Prototype
I decided to make a prototype for my project using a small cardboard box, this way I could experiment with placement and lighting.
I suspended them by using invisible thread, threaded through the fabric and then through the cardboard box.
Inspiration: Sophie Cave and Guerra de la Paz
Guerra de la Paz – Follow the Leader
This piece was made from second hand clothes which is effective as these clothes carry history from past eras and the existence of humans who lived through those eras, bringing the piece to life. It is made to look like there are a line of people following one another, hence the title. It seems to be a commentary perhaps about humans tendencies to follow trends particularly in fashion. The colours are bright and bold which are eye catching and pleasing to the viewer which make a great impact in a plain white gallery space.
I am also inspired by Cuban artists and duo Guerra de la Paz (Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz). They make complex sculptures out of materials and find inspiration in “the familiarity of the ready-made”. They started out by sourcing their materials from the waste bins of second-hand goods shipping companies in Miami, they have a great interest in recycled goods and turning them into something beautiful. They work with the fabric appropriately, manipulating the fabrics stiffness/looseness to create beautiful draped pieces that dangle delicately to more structures geometric pieces. Their work is also mostly bright and colourful, it is eye catching and makes a big statement as the pieces also tend to be quite big and create quite a presence that can’t be ignored by the viewer.
https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/guerra_paz.htm
Sophie Cave – Floating Heads
I am inspired by Sophie Cave’s ‘The Floating Heads’ installation at the Kelvingrove museum in Glasgow. I like how her work is very creepy, almost as if you are being watched or in a room full of strangers, making you feel a sense of anxiety as you are surrounded.
Cave created over 50 of the heads, each displaying different emotions including laughter and sadness. The heads are all white, but lighting is used effectively so that their expressions are accentuated with different colours like blue, warm orange, pink etc. which shows that she is aware of colour theory to match her ‘heads’ expressions as well which makes this more effective and interesting.
Plan
Instead of obvious expressions like on Cave’s work, I plan on making a similar installation but instead with different coloured fabric faces to represent the emotions instead of outright expressions. This will make my work look more haunting but also more personal as I love my work to be colourful. I will try and use material in an effective way like Guerra de la Paz do, folding and sewing so that the material can hang and look interesting to the viewer. I want to use lighting effectively like Cave has done to accentuate my faces and perhaps cast some creepy shadows.
I want to use colour theory in my pieces to show the range of emotions that we have represented through colours. This adds another dimension to my work which is more complex and thought out.
https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/emotion-wheel/
I’m very interested in the way that material can hang and plan on suspending my ‘faces’ from the ceiling; experimenting with light and shadow. My ‘faces’ will not look realistic as I find it interesting that we humans are able to see faces in many things so even though my ‘faces’ will only have slits for eyes, mouth, nose etc. they will still be recognised as faces.
Beth Radic Art 