Working with Found Objects

 

One of the first things I thought of before I found anything for this project was the toothpaste cap city that Charlie Bucket built in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). It was such an excellent commentary on how happy such a simple thing, such as deformed toothpaste caps that his father brought him from his job, made Charlie. And Charlie, being such a wonderful kid, was making a model of the Wonka Chocolate Factory where his Grandpa Joe used to work. 

For this project, instead of going somewhere like Goodwill to "find" objects, I opted to look outside and in the trash. Since this was a class project, our professor basically had a stash of cool things kept outside for us that were disposed of. I found a microwave and a Nikon photo scanner from around 2001. I've actually found that on places like Amazon, the Nikon photo scanner sells for upwards of $2, 993. The microwave, I am unsure of, but it was cool to tear apart such expensive machines and see how they worked.

Once I had successfully removed the insides of both machines, I was left with a bucket of wires, fans, and coils. I had forgotten about the toothpaste cap city and was stuck on what to do. I played around with the idea of doing an aerial view of an open heart surgery, as my mom has recently had heart surgery, but I could not get things correctly positioned the way I wanted. It was not until a friend of mine pointed out that the way I had positioned a motherboard and a battery together looked like a city that I was reminded of the toothpaste cap city.

From here, I launched into creating my own little mechanical city. I was hot glued pieces onto the motherboard and onto one another to assemble it. There are smaller motherboards on top of one another to represent different areas of the city. The lightbulb is the city powerplant, with cogs turning to power it. There is an arch, a welcoming into the city. Grey apartment buildings scattered throughout. Round black buildings as the hubs of entertainment. The clear pieces are water, with a small chip as the dam.

The city is a booming metal, mechanical, metropolis. In many ways, it represents our own today. I thought about the toothpaste cap city and how in the film, Charlie's dad's job was being replace with robots. Much like our own society, many jobs are being replaced with AI. My own mother does work that advances the progress of AI everyday. Eventually, in some ways, I'm convinced the world may be like this- bleak and metallic, maybe the grass might just look like a motherboard if we stare hard enough. Maybe the water is wires and we just cannot see. Progress is coming faster than we can really see, but at the same time, it is still so far behind and we think it's more advanced than it really is.

Working with Mold Making

 In a previous project, I had molded a pack of my dad's cigarettes out of clay. I wanted to attempt to now reproduce the cigarette portion of this piece, so I could then fill up a wooden box with reproduced cigarettes for a commentary on how the production of cigarettes can and ultimately kill you. However, this did not work out the way I intended it to. 

The first step in the process went well. I created a box using leftover scraps from a foam and plaster project, taping up the sides and hotgluing them so no silicon would leak. I used a different type of clay to start the mold, pressing down on the molded cigarettes to indent it, carving out where it needed to sit and then making sure it fit snug inside, so no silicon would drip underneath when I poured it in. Before I did anything, I was advised to add little lumps of clay to help with the silicon and make sure I wasn't using a ton. I mixed silicon together, and poured it over, waiting a day between to make sure it set. I did do this process wrong at first- I was supposed to make "keys"- little indentations where the silicon could separate from itself once I poured the top half over- but due to my mold ending up so lumpy, it worked out.

Once the silicon was dry, I poured plaster over it. This process was less tedious than the silicon mixing. I waited another day and flipped the mold over, repeating with another layer of silicon and another layer of plaster. This is where my project was flipped a bit upside down. The second layer of silicon seemed to have been bad and even after waiting almost a week once my mold was done and I poured plaster in to finally made a set of cigarettes, my cigarettes came out still wet and crumbled into a little mess in my hands. They were half formed, like the plaster had been sucked up and the mold was wet, as if someone had poured water in it.

In a desperate attempt to save my project, I tried to make a quick mold out of the clay that I had originally formed the cigarettes out of and a hot glue stick. I figured that I could carve away at the results of the hot glue stick to achieve the cigarette look.

This seemed to work well, with no leaks and it filled to the top. However, after a day had passed, I came back to a complete brick. I tried to carve it and break it, but it was not breaking.

In an attempt to comment on how destructive cigarette addictions can be, my process through this journey also felt like a strong commentary on addiction in general. Addiction to not cigarettes but perhaps impulse. I have a strong impulse to get things right, to fix everything. I have OCD and luckily it is managed but I believed this project was going to be the death of me. I want every project I do to have meaning and look good, but I have had to learn that my addiction to being someone who is perfect is not who I am meant to be. I am meant to be like this lumpy brick of plaster- a form that could possible be carved away at, but may never be. 

Working with Modeling

​In Process

The object that I chose to model was my dad's pack of cigarettes. It is something I see everyday and without even touching it, I know the shape well. I am with my dad almost 24/7 and his smokes are always on him.

At the beginning of the process, I had a circular mound of clay. I rolled it out and pounded on all sides to make it into a box like shape, shaving off clay where I needed with tools. I decided to upscale the object for this project, so the cigarette pack is larger than the actual one.

After making the box, I measured out how long the cigarettes would be according to the upscale box. I didn't want them to be too skinny or too fat, so I had to hold them in between my fingers and make sure they didn't fall apart when I held them. I used a small plastic knife to make the ends clean cut as if a factory had rolled them out.

Final

Foam and Plaster Sculpture

Sketches

The original sketches for my idea were formed ideas and not very abstract. I was originally going to create the object in the bottom right of the second sketch page, but when creating, I was taken in a different direction as I used the materials.

In Process

The base of the sculpture.

The sculpture without plaster.

Beginning to plaster.

Finishing the first coat of plaster.

Reinforcing the base after two coats of plaster.

Final

This piece, entitled "Foundations: Memories of the Broken", it explores themes of humans and their identity. Specifically, this piece is related to the foundations of childhood and growing up. The gold covers most of the base of the sculpture, showing very little of the places that the plaster did not cover, travelling upwards to cover the mesh joints holding together the circular pieces and the circles themselves. As the piece ascends, there is less gold covering it and you can see the cracks in the plaster and the doll rods holding them together. The purpose of the piece is to connect with the audience in the sense of growing up and losing your sense of "goldenness" or your childhood and having to be vulnerable. My inspiration for this piece came from my own life and the difficult decisions within them. I also drew inspiration for the golden paint splats from Jackson Pollock paintings.

ART 226 FINAL

 

MASKING TAPE SHOES BACK, SIDE, AND FRONT VIEWS

The goal for these shoes was for them to look like a pair of Vans, which almost worked out well. This art form allowed me to explore the three dimensional space and really figure out how that worked. I started by putting my real shoe on a banding wheel and looking at it from all angles, then creating long boards of tape, cutting them to the shapes of the shoe. I wrapped the outlines in tape, filling the inside shape with balls of extra tape to act as a "foot". When that was done, I worked on the edges, cutting down strips to go around. I wrapped more tape around to secure it, then cutting much smaller strips to create the shoelaces. I punched holes in the sides with a drill and a wooden toothpick, lacing the laces through. 

 

JESUS SAVE US: MODERNITY HAS FAILED US FRONT, BACK, AND SIDE VIEWS

LADY STARDUST FRONT, SIDE, AND BACK VIEWS

LADY STARDUST is a work of art commenting on people and their belief of life on other planets. The multicolored glass reflects the different planets, while the mirror in the alien's eyes is used to reflect the viewer, after all, we might be the aliens. The choice to leave the clay uncolored was because no one truly knows what color aliens are, if there are any. So, why make an assumption?

JESUS SAVE US: MODERNITY HAS FAILED US was inspired by Chris Bracey's pieces in London, specifically God's Own Junkyard and the song Love It If We Made It by British band, the 1975. They both speak so clearly on religion and politics that I wanted to bring their elements into my piece that reflects on my own experience with religion. JESUS SAVE US is a religious commentary on how suffocating religion can be. How it can tear you down, make you feel like you are one of thousands (hence the veil, with no face underneath). The glass represents blood and embers, the fire under you, almost like you are being burned at the stake (like the Salem Witch Trials).

GREGOR'S ROOM SIDE, FRONT, AND BACK VIEWS

The choices made for Gregor's room were based on the mood interpreted while reading through Kafka's short story. While reading, I viewed Gregor as a giant roach, but limbless as he felt helpless. He had the apple thrown at him, lodged in his back which caused him to die. I made him into a coatrack as well, because he was a fixture in his household, going to work and coming home, a steady presence. I made his bed simple, with a small mattress and a stained, dirty blanket and pillows from his bug transformation. His rug is all of the emotions he has, his anger, fear, and sadness from his family treating him the way he does just seeping into the floor and out of his body. I placed two briefcases onto the floor, one in blue because he carries sadness with him. I also placed clothing on the floor, because Gregor was a clothing salesman. 

GREGOR'S ROOM

FINAL GREGORS ROOM 

IN PROCESS GREGORS ROOM

Figurative Sculpture Assignment

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