In my second week of 'Fundementals' we started OBJECT, a workshop encouraging us to fully explore all the possibilities of what an object can be, what it means, and the different ways it can be made to relate to the world around it. Our workshop lecture fully explored the concept of bricks to their full thematic potential. I found it surprising how many more hidden meanings, connotations and themes a brick can represent, particularly the reference to the Berlin Wall and the different names for ways of laying the brick, such as solider and sailor. I often pay close attention to the deeper symbolismic meaning of my work during the planning stage and I found this of interest. It also definitely opened my mind to the greater potential of objects and helped me progress better in the coming workshop.
We were first assigned a random object to evaluate in the same way we had heard about the brick. We recieved the funnel on the left and began to analyse it, first noting the surface, injection moulded plastic with a matt finish,which makes the eye assume from afar that it is made from silicon, therefore it's real solid form was surprising. It was also clear that this object had been created with form over function in mind as the ridged concertina edge attractive to the eye but making the product harder to clean. The fluted shape gives the funnel an organic, flower-like shape. We also explored the tangible, interactive features of the object, first wearing it as a hat, the second time blowing and speaking into the created an amplified sound. Finally we also tested the kinetic properties of the object, spinning it on it's side in a rolling circle, and trying to stand it up on it's smallest end. The interactive and kinetic features were of most interest to me, as viewer feedback and experience are at the core of my practice.
We were then tasked with making a sculpture out of restricted materials that in some way incorporated the observations we'd made from our object. We chose to play on the interactivity element of our object and try to make a real functioning 'junk instrument' from our materials. Beginning by selecting surgical tubing, a glue applicator lid and a roll of shrink wrap, I forced the lid into the tubing and fixed it together with the wrap.
In this form the lid acted as a rudimental mouthpiece which did create a loud trumpet- esque sound however it was hard to hold and control. I tried to add two strutts in the center of the loop as a handle however the limitations of my materials were becoming ever more apparent as the harder I tried to add details the more of a mess my simple trumpet became. So I gave up on the strutts and instead focussed on building the horn end of the trumpet instead, using blue polystyrene and cellophane spun into thin threads.
I then used these threads to stitch the bottom edge of the polystyrene to create two sides of the horn which I then planned to sew together to complete the shape however quickly the polystyrene began to rupture, making it impossible to finish with the time and materials we had. This process was frustrating to me as, although I understood the creative merits of being given limited materials, I felt like my imagination had overstepped what I was able to achieve. I think if presented with a task like this again in future I should weigh up the vision in my head against what my working circumstances are able to accomplish in order not to overstretch myself with an overambitious concept.
Our next challenge was based on Richard Serra's 'Verb List' as we explored our unconventional materials to the extend of his list. I filmed myself carrying out a few of the verbs on various objects, twisting, rolling and picking things apart. However it was when I tried to melt a bar of soap that things got really interesting. When placed on a hob it didn't perform as expected, sticking to the bottom of the pan. So next I moved it to the microwave. Instead of beginning to melt, the bar of soap expanded, growing strangely in size into unusual forms. The tactility of this new form interested me, appearing lighter than before with a hollow feeling to it's surface. It also insulated heat incredibly well, as when broken the inside was still scalding even though the exterior, and had many hollow pockets inside.
The metamorphosis of the soap was shocking, having gone from a mundame, unremarkable tesco own brand soap to a puffed up monster. This led me to also thing about the way our expectations can be subverted, as now anyone regarding the soap in it's new form would not immediately realise it's origins. We tested washing our hands with this new body and found that a lather was formed similarly to a normal soap. Slight compression also forced the air from the pockets, packing the shape back down into a more recognisable blob and thus a full circle was created.
This cyclic nature of a product moving from one state to another and back again reminded me of a piece by artist Simon Starling. Shedboatshed won the 2005 Turner Prize as a shed, which Starling found on the banks on the River Rhine and then dismantled, reassembled into a boat which he then used to carry the remaining parts down river to Basle. He then dismounted and reassembled the entire shed in a Swiss museum, just as our soap was changed from a normal bar of soap to an unnatural new form and then back to usable soap again.
I really enjoyed the experimental nature of this workshop and feel like it greatly expanded my critical awareness of objects and subject matter however I felt somewhat at a loss of how best to continue these workshops in a manner which is meaningful to my own practice. I want to speak to my tutor in my next week's tutorial, first to ensure I am on the right track with my reflective journal and again to share ideas with her on how to culminate these workshops in the best way.
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