#radiusproject

Radius project 2025, Group 1

For our radius project we focused on the pub called The Treaty City Brewery, the mural of Constance Smith painted on the side of Treaty City, and the area around it.

Our final piece is centred around Constance Smith, the woman painted on the side of Treaty City, from our research on her we found that she was a a strong woman who went survived a lot including forced abortions. This is represented through the colourful mannequin. Constance Smith also carried some darkness, through research we found that she stabbed her husband twice and was also an alcoholic that died from alcoholism. This is represented through the dark clothes of the second mannequin. The capes on both mannequins represent her being strong and willing almost like a superhero.

Beginning the Radius Limerick assignment with sketches on architecture & colour from o’connell st, catherine st & thomas st.

Radius project

We are now into week 2 of the project.

The first picture is from week one, it is a brainstorm of ideas me and my peer group 36B did.

The second picture is a play on the barrier idea I am investigating. I folded up a sheet of paper and drew on it, to resemble the spire of the cathedral, and purposely put it behind the brainstorm sheet.

This idea then sparked an even bigger and better idea.

I brought in some objects from home, a bed sheet, a box and I had found some horse chestnut spikey outer layers previously while walking around the area of the cathedral the week before. I placed these in front of the brainstorm, to act as a barrier to being able to get close to it.

This has now led to what I am currently doing, which can be seen in the video and the last picture.

My lecturer Eoin McCormack helped me hang up the bed sheet on a wall and I decided to use charcoals and pastels to draw on it.I used my drawings and pictures taken of the cathedral from the previous week and put them up too.

This is the start of a collage which I'm really excited to dive into and create.

Today I took a closer look at one of the elements of my area I found most interesting, the Potato Market sign that hangs above the public carpark. I had previously sketched and looked at this sign in colour but I wanted to explore it on a larger scale and so I painted an A3 version. With this piece I want to explore the effect time has had on the sign as it is damaged and has been affected by the weather. For this reason I painted the piece as it once would have looked. I then began to plan the way I want to incorporate old/new into the piece using contrasts in paper and material.

Tuesday 03/10/23

I began this day by finishing up my collage bed sheet. I added lots more colour to it, which represents different emotions (like the threads I added to the brain I am making)

The work on the sheet represents a viscous cycle of barriers and vulnerabilities, and to help to portray this more, I used heavy string to create a spiral circle that goes around and around.

Similar to my crocheted brain, I added a black hole at the top of the sheet. One of my college peers took a picture of me touching the hole. I thought this would look cool as when I was shading it before, my hands became covered in black. It represents to me,letting the darkness in and infect me.

The crutches and torn sheet are my portrayal of the choice to break the cycle, to move on from it. But there is a sense of unknown in this choice.

The suitcase with pillow and blanket popping out of it represents that the cycle is carried with me, that I revert back to it when I really need it.

The cardboard box represents the barrier of having no known meaning to life and the confusion of always feeling like I don't fit in.

The four photos above are from books I used to help inspire my work. These books were "100 works of art that will define our age" by Kelly Grovier and "Jessica Stockholder" by Barry schwabsky, Lynne Tillman and Lynne cooke.

Jessica stockholder's work and Grayson Perry's work helped to inspire my work, aswell as Tracy Emin's work (see post Week 2 Part 1 30/09/23)

I also finished my brain. I had brought in some jewels I had at home and I hung them off the brain. Each jewel portrays a certain thing I want to be better at and all together they represent my deep desire to be a better person, which weights me down. I also added gems to represent that I am constantly growing and not stagnant.

For the Black hole, I used some squares of a plastic bin bag. I like the idea of using this as it shows how my brain thinks I'm shitty. But if I had more time (the project ends Thursday) I would love to try some ideas I got from my lecturer Giordana Gaiche from fashion textiles, like dipping material into wax to give off a wet look to the Black hole.

Monday 02/10/23

I started the day by going to a clay workshop. Elaine taught us how to work with a pottery wheel, a slab roller, how to roll clay with a wooden rolling pin, how to make pin pots and how to use different materials to create patterns on clay.

We worked with white clay and she told us the difference between it and red terracotta clay.

Above is the work I made, some pin pots and the beginnings of a slab.

She taught us as well how to wrap the clay in cling film which helps it to retain its moisture, so it doesn't dry and harden.

We were encouraged by staff to try move to different rooms during the day to get a feel for what was going on there. So at 12pm, I decided to go to the fashion textile room and Mairead Neil and Giordana Gaiche helped me with ideas for creating my brain (something I want to create for the radius project).

I wanted it to portray well that it is not happy to be mentally disabled but finds comfort in it too. It dangerously balances between healthy and unhealthy.

Over the weekend (as seen from the first picture above) I created a brain like material by crocheting wool (I got help to make this from a YouTube tutorial https://youtu.be/4T5tEOil2mA?si=n5l2sF-aMOcT5K7s).

I gathered some random coloured wool in the fashion textile room, and began to weave this in and out of the brain. The different colours represented emotions.

The black in the middle of the brain represents a black hole, deep and unending. I used a cut off of black material (I think maybe a mixture of cotton and polyester) at first with this but I am now thinking of trying to use a wetter looking material like PU leather or dipping material in wax (to give it a wet look)