#temporaryproject

Anna Atkins| Artist research

was introduced to us in Tus during the cyanotype workshop with Tutor Gemma Dardis. Anna is a pioneer as she created the first Photograph book of cyanotypes.

Anna Atkins was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources say that she was the first woman to create a photograph.---WIKI

I choose this image as the viewer can use it as a window while seeing the fragility and brokenness of the wing structure maintained by threads as I imagine how the Mayfly's wing may look after it has descended into the water at the end of its own lifecycle.

I continued to experiment and play with my fragile wing after it dissolved in the river.

As the weather here is at -3 it was a perfect opportunity to get an array of images as it froze in the cold misty air.

A little gif while it is caught in the movement of a frozen plant.

A life cycle of anything is never going to be a perfect circle of experience, when life breaks down, situations occur that interrupt the events of the day. Within the Mayflys 24 hour cycle of existence many occurrences may inevitably happen to him despite his instinctual drive that compels him to procreate as soon as he is born.

The same is true for us as we are driven in our existence to go about the activities that spur us into action wherein we discover many unexpected , unplanned event can arise which causes our path /cycle to be not so linear or straightforward in itself.

Hence I see this reflected in my images of these broken ceramic pieces. I aim to bring these pieces back together again to reflect that cycles will imperfect even break but in nature they strive ultimately to continue on and will find a way to maintain a cycle of continuation amongst degradation and brokenness and imperfection.

Today, I attended the plaster processes workshop with Sarah. I found this workshop so fun, and messy and overall really eye opening to a type of medium I have never worked with before.

There were loads of examples on the walls of the plaster studio that were super impressive - from draping fabrics to plaster casts and molds.

I wanted to use something associated with my project, but the only thing I had that I thought would be suitable was a air dry clay heart I made a while ago when I visited the clay studio, so I just decided to use that.

To create a mold to out the plaster in, our tutor showed us a machine where you could melt, or vacuum plastic on to the object to create a 3D old to pour plaster straight into.

I had never seen anything done like this before so it was really exciting to even just see that this machine was an option if I happened to have any ideas in the future.

Along with this, we were shown how to mix plaster and water together, and how to prepare alginate to create a mold. We were also shown different methods of dipping things like fabrics into the plaster and hanging them to dry.

I was really happy with my finished piece from this workshop. I know it is just a mold of something I made before, but I love the appearance of the different textures from the plaster vs the clay.

Artist Research -Louise Bourgeois

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois was a French-American artist. She is mostly known for her sculptural works, but was also a painter and printmaker.

In these particular 'soft sculptures', Bourgeois repurposes her old clothes that were once gathering dust in one of her old Manhattan apartments.

"The works refute the classical view of the female body as a glossy object or passive muse."

"The Good Mother", (2003), is one of the most interesting of her pieces to me. My interpretation of this piece is a woman, trapped in her reproductive duties, as the threads slowly unwind. I also think it's interesting how the sculpture has no arms, as if she has no control over her actions and she can't pul away from the unwinding.

This artist was recommended to me during my progress review and I find her work really interesting.