The Art Assignment: Artistic Alchemy by Brandan Odums
For these kinds of assignments, being somewhat of a hoarder comes in handy. I found these old ring boxes that I’ve kept from presents, and immediately thought of the artist Talwst that makes dioramas in ring boxes, and I wanted to do something similar(so this is also kind of an ‘under the influence’ I guess).
The thing with ring boxes is that you always know what you will receive when you get one - either a ring or maybe earrings. But it is not just any wrapper for a gift - the box with it’s cushions signifies somethings valuable and precious. Opening a ring box is a luxurious experience in it self.
For these though I wanted the thrill of opening the box, but not of the joyous kind. Instead, taking inspiration from one of the boxes which brand literally is ‘Pandora’, I made these surreal, disturbing scenes - frozen moments just before something horrible is going to happen. I decided to use just the materials I had in my immediate surrounding. Because of the size you can’t quite see all the details in these small boxes.
In the white box I took inspiration from the box itself. I wanted to keep the bottom cushion that reminded me of a bed, so I sculpted a sleeping figure out of soft eraser and gave it a piece of a napkin for a sheet. The window frame and the claw reaching in is also made from soft eraser.
In the black one I played with some of the objects I had found to make the scene. I used a tiny child figure dressed for going swimming from a now lost play set, combined with stones that I’ve once found, and made an ocean out of layer upon layer of glue . I painted a lightning background to make it look like an unsupervised child heading into the waves in the middle of a thunderstorm.
Both boxes are painted with nail polish. At first I was hesitant about the glitter, but I chose to embrace it instead of switching to ordinary acrylic paint because of how it somehow tied to the ring boxes original content.
