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| Muscle Installation 2013 T-shirt fabric, Beeswax, Linseed oil, White spirit, Rope, MDF board, Wood glue, MDF dust, Metal table, Golf clubs, Matte inkjet prints. |
Dear Eva, Miek and Frank;
This is now day 2 after the first critique, and I can honestly say that I am pleased with the result. I don't know if the teachers went less hard on me because I am an exchange student but I hope not. The installation ended up very different from the sketches but I do not necessarily think that it is a bad thing.The starting point of the piece is the lives of 4 'playboys' from last century. They all had two things in common; they loved women and they died a spectactular death. The photograph on the lower level of the table is of Alfonso De Portago who was a spanish race car driver killed in a crash in 1957. He was a nobleman who raced cars, bobsleighs, played polo, was a spanish diving champion etc. There is a great story or myth saying that he had a license to fly, but never bothered learning navigation so he would often get lost in the air.
Whether or not the stories about the 4 men are true, I am not that interested in. I wanted to make an installation that would show this fascination of their lives but also tell a story about macho ideals and how far removed they are from contemporary living.
I did not want to ridicule it, but not put it on a pedestal either (as in glorify). First I wanted to make only phallic symbols.
The object on top of the small table was actually meant to have been a nose from an airplane. Like this:
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| found photo - not my work |
I just spent ages gluing it and in the end I ran out of time at the lathe so it became this strange looking 'objet d'affection'. It kind of just took of in a direction and a lot of the choices made was not planned from the beginning. The t-shirt I glazed with wax in order to make it into oilskin. It's very far from what I expected but it looks like what I wanted. This kind of hyperrealistic fabric that you always see in movies. Do you know what I am talking about? I want to say authentic but that word is so sticky and over the top, that actually, that is what I was aiming for. Abercrombie&Fitch Vintage Authentic Rugged Greasy Caveman apparal.
I like how this - on a formal level - is a big step forward. Instead of making self-contained sculptures I am now trying to build a narrative with objects and photographs. I have the intentions to make a better use of the space later on. In this piece I feel the individual objects could be tied together more nicely - Especially the golf club is kind of on its own and could just as well be left out. The club is definitely a continuation of the sculptures made at Rietveld. It was meant to be a polo mallet but then it had this great wooden head that somehow looks like a pipe and then I couldn't get my self to cut it off.
All in all I feel like this is a big progress from what I've been doing last semester.
I am considering using text to open up for the meaning next time. Only text in this one was the tag on the t-shirt saying 'muscle'.
It needs to be a balance though, over explaining is the worst thing there is.... Or maybe I should just go all in.
This was the first of 3 critiques in sculpture class. The other classes I've been neglecting a bit, but I really need to focus on sculpture. There's a lot of unrelated homework and it's starting to bug me.
The last 3 weeks I have also seen tons of gallery shows in Chelsea and around Brooklyn. I've become pretty obsessed with the textures of surfaces. Things are going way fast and there's always something happening.
Yesterday I went and saw an opening of Rachel de Joode. It pretty much rocked my world.
There's talk about getting Urs Fischer for a guest-teacher critique. That would be freaking awesome. Being here I am exposed to so many interesting things that I could not possible put it into work. I am missing out making all the equations and only producing the end result of the inspiration process.
In other news, Pratt's main building top floor burned! It won't affect me, but it's pretty mysterious what started the fire.
In the wee bit of spare time there is, I like to surf the internet and find information about amazing people:
www.badassoftheweek.com
