Summative assessment. Lucy Thwaites

Transcription

1 Summative assessment Lucy Thwaites

2 The Ken Stradling Collection As part of this project involves working with other venues and museums, we recently visited the Ken Stradling collection. Stradling joined the Bristol guild in 1948 and set out to sell furnishings and objects for west country homes. His enthusiasm for design meant he started his own collection opening it to the public. The collection features chairs, tables, ceramic wear and glass objects. The objects that caught my eye where those full of colour or bold patterns, These objects appealed to me as I found the surface pattern interesting. I think surface is something I would like to explore the most in this project. I often find myself being drawn to objects that feel homely or have a lot of colour in the design. I also though the teapot from 1767 stood out the most, designs similar to the one made by Villroy and Boch are still popular today. This is the object I have chosen to take inspiration from for this project. I shall begin my project by researching the design and company.

3 Subject Progress: Narrative & development The object I decided to take inspiration from was tea pot by Villroy and Boch. The designer took inspiration from Acapulco, a city in Mexico. I began to research Mexican folk stories as the original print is of Mexican origins. I originally found a folk story/ urban legend called Lechuza, Lechuza means owl in spanish. The story is as follows Lechuza are women that have sold their souls to the devil in exchange for magical powers. At night they transform into monsters with a birds body and a womans face, they fly through the night in search of pray. I thought this story might be tricky too narrate on an object. I continued to research whilst researching mythical creatures I found the story of Inanna. Inanna is the Sumerian goddess, Queen of heaven and earth, depicted as a woman with owls wings and feet. She s accompanied by two owls. The design on the tea pot features birds and flowers so I decided to use these as my key words to search for inspiration. I found this poem interesting as it was a myth I hadn t heard of before and wanted to research it further.

4 Painting verses from The Decent of Ianna As a starting point I decided to paint the verses from The Decent of Ianna, painting is something I have always taken interest in, Painting allows me to express thought processes but also allows me to create surfaces and build up texture and patterns to aid projects, I wanted to explore textures through a different surface before I started to experiment with ceramics. Below are some examples from different verses, I have also digitalised one of my paintings to see contrast and explore new programs, I used photoshop for this but I thought the process was too time consuming and I could get better results by hand painting images however I found it interesting developing new skills.. In my field module I am currently working with animation, I want to include animation in this project even if its not used in my final piece I would like to incorporate it into my research. Mark making comes more natural to me than figurative drawings. The explorations of colour, texture, shape helps create new surfaces to work on. When creating the paints I put little thought into the brush strokes that occurred and painted what felt naturally to me. In our field sessions we were given different materials to explore and create a object in response to music. I found this task interesting as we had little time to over think an idea, I wanted to incorporate this task into my practice. Over complicating ideas is something I often do I thought this task would help me stop myself from repeating past mistakes.

5 Surface exploration and slip I originally started this project using paint, building up layers and mark making to explore narrative and story telling. When I was confident with painting I began to use slip instead of paint. The slip has similar qualities to the paint. However I feel I ve used too much water in the first batch I made. The slip was quite runny although it worked well as a base coat on top of clay. The second batch was thicker but this made it tricky to apply marks. The slip recipe I used was 50% china clay and 50%ball clay, I added more stain as I felt fit as I wanted to intensify the colour. The first two images use slip and paint. The cobalt blue slip is the most impressive, I used an orange slip which looked muggy and wasn t an intense pigment. In the other images I have used a mixture of, paint, glaze, stain, thread and plaster to create layered effects. Whilst these images have been done on plaster board on MDF next term I would like to explore using clay as a base. Using wood as a starting point made me able to build up confidence and become familiar with the mediums. Coloured slip is something I have not used before and I wanted to be resourceful and familiarise myself with it s qualities and texture.

6 Surface exploration with slip cast After experimenting with hand building I decided I would like to try slip casting. The forms I have been previously creating have been more organic in nature. In contrast, slip casting allows you to create manufactured forms. Using a mould and slip casts give me a smoother surface to work on allowing me to focus on creating various surfaces with controlled outcomes. I began experimenting by creating marks on a vessel that had been taken out of the mould and semi-dried with a heat gun. The vessel, however, warped and was difficult to control. I originally planned to make my form semi-organic but the result looked lazy and unplanned the idea was not executed well. I experimented with many designs on my slip cast vessel using different thicknesses of slip, and combining coloured slip with non-coloured slip to see if that would give me a different surface to work on. My project has focused more on the familiar instead of working on my original idea, and so to draw from the original idea I wanted the colour palette to reflect that of the teapot I saw at the Ken Straddling Collection

7 Rauschenberg Rauschenberg uses a mixture of found objects and abstract expressionist techniques to create his artwork. He uses space to create movement between objects and creates a narrative within his work. The use of mark making often features heavily in Rauschenberg s work instead of using a traditional canvas to paint on Rauschenberg has used an old quilt, it is said to be Rauschenbergs own quilt. Quilts are intimate items, so for Rauschenberg to display this it shows incite to his lifestyle creating narrative on a more personal level. The use of paint at the head of the quilt is quite suggestive the space he s applied paint is where a person would put their head making it suggest that these could be Rauschenbers thought s or personality showing through. The marks Rauschenberg has used are manic and bold however the pattern of the quilt is controlled and organised however you can tell it is quite worn. As Abstract as this piece is personally I think it has a strong narrative as to who Rauschenberg is. Although my idea for this project is based around the decent of Inanna, I would like to make my work as personal as Rauschenberg has, the use of brush marks and using found objects help this piece from becoming bland, each part of Bed creates movement and different points of interest with the use of using texture and found objects.

8 Anslem Kiefer Anselm Kiefer is often known for his wide use of materials and narrative behind his work. In his piece Geheimnis der Farne he uses a wide range of materials such as,oil, emulsion, acrylic, chalk, branches, resin caoted fern, plaster, shellac, clay, barb wire on canvas.. I wanted to included this piece in my research as Kiefer often has interesting surface qualities using both organic and non organic materials. Kiefer is of German origin and often uses these influences in his work. The composition is rich in detail however its exacted well so each detail is noticeable and has impact.

9 Elizabeth Frisch Elizabeth Frisch often creates hand built pots influenced by painting, music and literature.she uses pre decorated slabs to make her vessels. I have included this in my artist research as Frisch executes her designs well and she has intesting texture on her surfaces. The different layers of colour give the vessel dimension and contribute to scale. Whilst the vessel uses more natural colours in comparison to other artists I have previously looked I thought it would be useful to show skill and contrast, The decoration Frisch has used shows movement through the vessel.

10 Virginia Leonard Ceramicists Virginia Leonard creates interesting vessels using a mixture of ceramics and abstract expressionism painting. In a documentary Leonard explains how in some pieces of her work there will be parts which she loves the most she also says how she doesn t think too much into what the final outcome is going to look like. She comments on how being an abstract painter is frustrating as she cannot recreate the paintings she has created which is something I faced when exploring using slip as paint. I found it difficult to recreate or inspire myself to create new paintings once they had finished. After being inspired by Virginia Leonard I decided I would create objects in a style similar to hers to see if I enjoyed working in that way. It was interesting exploring the use of different materials such as hot glue over paint and slip but I didn t know where to take these objects once I had finished them and unlike Leonard my work didn t inspire me to create new objects.

11 How Field Influenced my final outcome This term we ve been given the task of responding to music through animation and the abstract movement. Composer Dan Soley A level 4 composer from the royal welsh academy of music, Titled socialite Soley created the piece electronically using the program MAXMSP. MAXMSP uses sounds and recreates them artificially, the composition features sounds such as ringing, ping pong tables, voices and other noise to create one piece. We were given the challenge of using found objects to create a 3D piece in response to Socialite Personally I found the piece quite violent, the sounds where so electronically built to me they became angry. When listening to it I saw it in colour, reds, blacks & greys. It was chaotic and I wanted my object to reflect this. We were told to use our space wisely when deciding where our objects should go. As it had a mixture of open space and flat surfaces I thought it would look best hanging on a wall. The notion of creating work whilst in response to a piece of music and using everyday objects reminded me very much of child s play focusing on nothing but the the music and action of making an item.

12 Exhibition planning Our final pieces are being exhibited in the heart space of the university building as well as Ken Straddling, this space is normally a cafe that is constantly busy which is a good location for an exhibition however this being kept in mind planning is crucial with making the most of the space but also being aware of health and safety and potential viewers. I have drawn some sketches of how I would like to present my work for exhibition, my vessels are delicate I think it is ideal for them to be on plinth or a shelf. I also want to make sure I catch the viewers eye so lighting may play an important part. I think having the vessels on a shelf will work best, I would also like to include a painting I made at the beginning of the year I feel this painting started my exploration of mark making.

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