The world is dying and we are past the point of no return; is what we are constantly told and it’s becoming increasingly hard to deny it. Nobody wants to blame themselves for a mistake they’ve made and that’s collectively what has happened in regards to the state of our world. You know what they say; ‘ignorance is bliss.’
When researching and carrying out experimentation for my work, I realised that all of the experiments were transformative, it was through my hands that irreversible effects were put on the copper I was working with. Copper starts out as this beautiful, shiny, metallic material, but it is so sensitive to change and you can leave marks on it so easily, it’s future entirely depends on you. I chose to continue working with copper after the last assessment for this purpose.
In researching for further experimentation, I came across work by Australian artist Oliver Tanner. He works mainly with metals and is really able to capture the diversity and rhythm that a manipulated piece of metal can have (Oliver Tanner, 2017). I loved the flow that he was able to give the solid piece, which is what drew me to my final experiment for my last assessment. In the end though, it wasn’t the form that I found the most enticing, but the finish and the slowly changing effect I was able to give to the surface through heat treating. The induced aging of the metal is what lead me to find the world of patinas. A patina is a thin layer that generally forms on the surfaces of metals such as copper or brass through oxidisation as it ages. The surface colour is normally a sign of age and weathering and is the reason why objects like the Statue of Liberty appear that green-blue colour (“Patina,” 2017). Though usually a sign of age, the process can be accelerated through techniques like fuming, where you suspend the copper over an ammonia soaked cloth in a sealed container, and then what would normally take years or even decades can be done in a day (“copper patina | Evadesigns,” 2017).
The fact that it was my doing that left the marks on the copper to me felt really poignant. It was directly through my actions that the copper would no longer have any use other than the decorative object I sculpted it into. Although not directly, this is what we are doing to our world, as a result of increased pollution in production we are prematurely aging our planet. Ironically, copper has been a preferred building material for centuries because of its aging process, unlike other metals that rust with age and weathering, the patina that forms on the surface of the copper actually protects it from further erosion and damage (“Copper Facts,”). Copper oxidises quicker in areas of high pollution where there are a lot of contaminants in the air, creating an odd cycle; the unhealthier an environment, the tougher the copper becomes (Roofing, 2016). The copper sheet I chose to work with was thin, but it still had structural integrity, which made forming organic shapes hard. A rose although of the heartier varieties of flower is still delicate, it is momentary beauty before something inevitably causes its demise. The initial state of the copper sheet was much the same, it could be easily crushed, bent, cut and everything I did would leave a scar. It was only by destroying it that I saved it. In making the new old, it took away a lot of its initial beauty and appeal; it’s not shiny and it doesn’t have that desirable orange glow, but it will survive a lot longer because of that.
In my rose, I created the perfect contradiction; aging usually leads to an end, but in prematurely aging my rose, I made it stronger and more likely to survive our in our dying world, which is dying because of us.
Bibliography
-Copper Facts, 2017. URL https://www.copper.org/education/c-facts/facts-print.html.
copper patina | Evadesigns, n.d.
- Oliver Tanner (@olivertannerart) • Instagram photos and videos, 2017, URL https://www.instagram.com/olivertannerart/.
- Patina, 2017. . Wikipedia.
- Roofing, P., 2016. Copper roof color changes as it ages. Prestige Roof. URL https://www.prestigeroofinglv.com/copper-roofing-color-patina/.
pixelskylines
areudirty
jimmyeatworldofficial
kianamaiart
origamiaround