#yarn installation

Ahem, although I've posted my own drawings I've never actually posted schoolwork. But the wonderful simplifiedwords had requested me to post them so here they are coupled with process photos! All are handcrafted by myself with the exception of the 4th piece which was a collab.

Below is the (long) description of each sculpture, feel free to skip through:

Wrapping Project (Assignment 1)

Time to complete: several days

Basically our professor wanted us to pick an object we like and wrap it with an entirely different material, it could be done in a style that is a visual pun (ie. my classmate wrapped rubber duckies with ducktape or another one did a clock with little paper clay flies because I said "time flies" when we were brainstorming ideas) or made to look it was built that way. I chose a pair of shoes because I love shoes, I wrapped them with aluminium foil coated with several layers of molding paste/plaster then painted over with acrylic and spray paint making it super tough. As you can see from the pictures I had to build it up piece by piece and they needed to be left to dry. A very messy project it was.

Perfect Box (Assignment 2) 

Time to complete: 24+ hrs

Using only paper, glue and x-acto knife, our professor told us to create a 3D box that is either additive or subtractive (you either add shapes onto the box, carve them out or combine the two) I chose to combine the two but subtracting more than adding. It was relatively easy just time consuming and had a bit of math involved when constructing the box because if you're not hyper-accurate with the measuring your box cannot be constructed. I had to redo the box 1 not because I messed up the measurement instead the paper I got was too thick (380gsm) therefore when carving not only will it be even more time consuming but the paper will crease and the shapes will be wonky (super no-no, craftsmanship is everything). My theme as you can see is butterflies and I created a narrative where the butterfly comes out of its cocoon then travels from each panel from a flower to the top where it rests. The path is created by the small pieces of wings that goes to a certain direction to lead the eyes. I stupidly left the box at school and it may or may not be there by the time I go back in Fall.

Yarn Installation (Assignment 3)

Time to complete: I think about 5 days juggling between classes and work

This 19"x12"x11.5" mini yarn installation box has about 50 nails hand hammered (my thumb is forever traumatised) and about 40 yarn wrapped marbles dangling. There was quite a bit of maths involved (who said art doesn't use science?) as I had to calculate how many nails can be placed in each row, the distance of each nail, the amount of rows and how the rows should be placed in order for the shadows casted to be visually pleasing. Lighting was one of the most important factors affecting the whole thing because if you look at the process picture you can only see the shadow at the bottom without lighting from the bottom to cast the shadows all around in order for the object to interact with the plane. One of the criteria of the project was to have the whole thing interacting each other, in other words, the box cannot be just a thing to contain/frame the installation, it has to be part of it. The dangling concept was a totally pain in the ass because once it tangled it becomes very difficult to untangle, I had to cut them and re-string them 10 minutes before my turn to present. 

Hybridity Landscape (Assignment 4, collab with felidaepanthera)

Time to complete: I can't remember because I was too exhausted to remember but I think 36-72hrs? At this point I quit my job.

This project was by far the worst in craftsmanship, concept-wise it was okay but the execution was horrible. The title itself had made my partner and I wonder for a really long time. "What the hell is hybridity landscape?!" was what we kept asking. Our professor finally told us that what she wanted was an abstract landscape made of a combination of materials. Pants and I suffered through the whole project because I were polar opposites and our ideas clashed at every turn. For the first half of the week we argued endlessly over what to make, yes we only had 1 week to finish it as oppose to the normal 2 weeks we get for each assignment. Because there are 2 people working on it instead of 1, fine. After much consideration we finally decided on doing a coral reef/ant colony hybrid thing that you see above. It ended up looking like something you'd see in Frozen, which was one thing my classmate mentioned before with the yarn installation. I swear I wasn't deliberately using Frozen as inspiration. The materials used were, plastic straws, aluminium foil, paper clay, cotton buds and 3 cans of spray paint. The base is a hella expensive acrylic mirror (approx. USD 20).

Final

Time to complete: 20+ hrs possibly 36+ hrs

The final project was a "all you can do" project, we could make ANYTHING. It could be of ANY size. Which was wonderful but also horrible, we aren't restricted to anything which poses a problem because you cannot decide on a single sculpture. I myself was lost for a few days, mind you I only had 1.5 weeks to finish this and on top of that I had a jacket to sew, a book to complete for fashion AND an exam to study for so I was really pushing it. After doing some research I went back to my initial decision at the beginning of the quarter to make a fairy woodland. The "how and what" problem came in after, I wanted to score high in this piece because if I don't I will lose my scholarship which is shit. Finally I told myself to narrow down what I wanted to do make to a snow globe but I didn't want it to be another piece that reminds people of Frozen because honestly I was upset about it so I thought "Why not use plants instead that way it won't have that feeling of Frozen since winter is the main theme?", but something always happens. I wanted to use jars instead of actual globes because I wanted to keep the unconventionality that my pieces have, but jars were so freaking hard to find here! After I finally found the jars I finished one piece first and poured water in and it. didn't. work. Instead the water became murky and the stones I used became stained and dirty looking. I was like "Well that's. just. effin. great." I had to quickly change my design to accommodate the ruined piece so that it looked as if it was meant to look murky. So I came up with a narrative and decided instead of making 3 plant globes I made 7 different ones with different heights to create a direction. The story is basically how nature begins green and lush then gets overrun by industrial buildings symbolised by the handmade crystal structures that as the story goes on gets eroded and collapsed before nature takes over again and begins the cycle. If you pay attention closely, the greenery changes colour from bright green to muted green then finally the murky accident then back to bright green again. The light once again makes its appearance from the second project to create ambience and the blocks that held the pieces up were just foam boards cut and stacked then wrapped with muslin fabric.