25/01/2017 - WASTING PLASTER CAST AND LATEX

When I arrived in the workshop the next day after the second Sculpture session I picked up from where I left off and began work on my coke bottle centrepiece. First, we had to mix some fine casting plaster, instead of the much stronger Herculite we had been using in previous casts, and gently cover it in a layer around 2mm thick. Flicking it over the sculpture instead of pouring, so as to encourage as much of the plaster into the fine details as possible. The next step was to then mix another layer of plaster, this time with a coloured tint. Eventually when carving away the mould from the poured cast, this layer will be my indication of when I am almost through the other side.

24/01/2017 - SCULPTURE SESSION 2

In readiness for this second session we were asked to prepare some new material ideas to work onto. I had decided to focus more closely on my fossil sculptures as it was these I thought were most visually effective.

20/01/2017 - PARTICIPATION - CLARE BISHOP

In my feedback from my first assessment my tutor suggested I read a book called 'Participation', a collection of books and essays on particpatory aspects and influences within art, such as Relational Aesthetics, and the Death of the Author, edited together by Clare Bishop. This book was one of a large series named Documents of Contemporary Art which covers a wide range of contemporary art concepts. 

17/01/2017 - SCULPTURE SESSION 1

In our sculpture workshop there were quite a few typical examples of sculpture such as Marc Quinn's blood head and Rachel Whiteread's inverted casts of different objects. There was one project which really aligned with the examples of street sculpture I had already studied, which was actually placed on the front of the St. Georges building of NUA.

12/01/2017 - SURREALISM DIPTYCH - 'TERRESTRIAL BEINGS'

Building off my research into Surrealism I decided to use my remaining boards from my Ba1a IMAGE workshop to create a diptych of small paintings directly referencing Dali, with thematic interests linked to my own practice. I paid close attention to Dali's use of sky, earth and the horizon line to give my pieces the same estranged feel. I called these 'Terrestrial Beings'. (see below)

10/01/2017 - RESEARCH: CONTEXT - SURREALISM

In today's Research: Context lecture we spoke about Surrealism and it's concepts. I found it really interesting that most art movements have a birth, peak, and then drop in popularity and uptake, however Surrealism changes, shifts, and grows but hasn't faded in prominence over the years. 

07/01/2017 - SCULPTURE PREP

After researching both traditonal and modern examples of relief sculpture, I decided working on a street intervention would not only celebrate and emphasise the qualities of relief, but also to be relevent with my personal practice. I also wanted to focus on considering context and placement as this was something my tutor Faye has suggested this was something I could improve on during our feedback session.

The last year had been one of many celebrity deaths, but the passing which stuck with me most, was just before the end of the one before, when on the 22nd of November 2015, Noala, one of the worlds last remaining Northern White Rhinos died. This leave only three surviving animals remaining, the only male of which having had his horn cut off as a desperate measure to protect him from poachers. I find this story very upsetting, as it is the loss of what was once a major subspecies of one of the planet's most iconic creatures, and I think serves as an important marker of our effects on the planet. If such prominent species can be lost, it begs the question of how great our impact is on all of the smaller, less widely known organisms.

I chose to highlight this cause in my early idea sketches in preperation for my SCULPTURE sessions. My initial idea was to use the relief style to depict the bones of a dead rhino, in a kind of fossilised archealogical dig style, parodying the extinction of the dinosaurs and their remains. In doing this I want to suggest connotations of how one day iconic modern day species such as the rhino could be reserved to be seen only in achealogical studies and natural history museums. I thought this would also lend itself well to the nature of a relief sculpture.

I chose to do both full body and induvidual skull sketches as simple composition ideas. I favoured the first one (above) with the plinth below and hunting rifle above as it seemed like a hunters trophy-come-museum display cabinet. I think the second design with just the skull was, although eyecatching and visually interesting, more obscure than the first. To translate my concept as clearly as possible to passers by in a busy city setting my design has to be clear and unambiguous.

Although I liked both of these initial plans, I was keen to not restrict myself with specific ideas, as I could not be sure exactly what the workshop would entail, meaning my designs could potentially be unsuitable. I had found it useful however to play with the idea of wall plaques and anatomical fossils and feel I have secured a mental basis of possibilities which I can build on in the workshop.