NIKKI ART

https://niki-artcove.carrd.co

[nikkiart66]

[nikkiart66]

Inheritance of Weight

Jeans, Bedsheet, Eyelets, Jute, Thread, Found Broom, Cement

Intent:

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Planning stage

Making a cement skirt

Performance in which I try to dance in skirt

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Control

Medium: Shoddy carpet insulation, pencil rods grid, door hinges

Intent:

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Differnt process: tighten yarn on grid to create pressure

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Final Index 

14. QCQ #3: The Gravity of Levity 

15. Contradictory Structures: Research: 1 2 3

16. Contradictory Structures: Final

17. QCQ #4: X Marks the Spot

18. Lost Statements: Research: 1 2 3

19. Lost Statements: Final

20. Self-Directed Manifesto: Research: 1 2 3

21. Self-Directed Manifesto: Final

[nikkiart66]

Title: Play -ing- House

Medium: Red Mesh, concrete, thread, tent base, dyed stuffing

Dimensions: H:84in, L:33in, W:25in

Intent:

For this piece, I focused on experimentation of materials and color mainly. I used a very potent red and see through mesh that was then sewed onto this ready made tent like structure that reminded me of theater curtains. Also, I molded balloons within this fabric and dipped it into concrete in hopes of it hardening. But, instead the cement crumbled a lot and was sensitive to touch, it then in a way, started to feel alive, like something that was impossible to care for and deteriorating slowly essentially. I then dyed cotton stuffing using a red ink I mixed with water and placed them within the concrete molds. Overall, this piece reminded me of my grandmother's spirit in wanting to be an actress and even partaking in plays, but with her first marriage, she was treated poorly and forced to act a certain way, like being molded from a person into a stuffed thing. It was as if her spirit was being beaten out of her symbolically, and so I wanted to create a representation of that. My grandmother is a very lively person, but it has been the case that when she would be in relationships, she would contain herself to be or act like the other person preferred; a pretense would then be configured to be my grandmother's standard.

[nikkiart66]

Mood Board 3:

I wanted to dye cotton stuffing either natural or with ink and do a performance in which i rub this stuffing onto myself, essentially staining myself, and perhaps sewing a fabric onto myself that i would then cut off and showcase.

[nikkiart66]

Mood Board 2:

I wanted to try to use text again in a piece in which i thread it onto ready made materials. not sure of which text, but I wanted to display out in public.

[nikkiart66]

Mood Board 1:

I wanted to make a sort of deconstructed soft sculpture using cement and cotton stuffing, i was thinking of the past fabric with cement filled pieces I've done and wanted to take it apart in a sense that would be more visually engaging.

[nikkiart66]

Title: My Childhood Replica

Medium: 1st: Table, Cloth, Wax, Plaster, Books, Bag, Marbles

2nd: Child's shirt, plaster, thread, rebar, screw

3rd: plaster, spray paint, domino box

Dimensions Variable

Intent:

For this piece, I initially wanted to stage a scene of when I was a child during a time that was difficult to adjust to that occurred from my parent's divorce. In the first set of pictures, I wanted to talk about growing up as an only child and staying over my grandparent's apartment, since my dad was living with them after the divorce, but being kind of put in a space that was not necessarily uncomfortable, but rather particular. I did not feel comfortable to run around and play like a kid would, but felt like I had to remain in one area and be more careful with how I would interact with the space. From that setting a scene display, came about this idea of how many things as a child are very fake in a sense, there was always some sort of veil that grown ups would attempt to put on what was really going on. Then came about putting fake buttons on a child's shirt, which I used to have many shirts like that. But I molded the screw heads and sewed them onto this shirt in order to mix my child self to my current self as I continue to understand the type of work I want to create. I also made molds of this rectangle object that funny enough, looked like dominos to me, so then again, I wanted to relate it to my child self of being at my grandparents house and finding whatever objects around to use as my toys. I spray painted the markings of a domino's to be one versus one, but placed at the corner in due to that divide among my parents, where they never saw eye to eye in any regard. Whichever way the domino's are set up, would lead to a cornered stance.

[nikkiart66]

Mood board 3:

I wanted to make my own keychain out of rebar perhaps and make a silicone mold of that. I was thinking of when I was a child and I would have so many keychains, mostly ones that people would give me, but i would take such care of them. I wanted to give these plaster keychains to people in my life and have them put it with their keys and then ask for them back within 2 weeks or ideally a month. I wanted to present the keychains which I image would be mostly damaged, or maybe taken care of , to show the process of care in terms of sentimental.

[nikkiart66]

Mood Board 2:

I wanted to make my own hooks using a cast of a readymade hook and changing its appearance. make hooks with rebar, perhaps mold with concrete.

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Mood board 1:

I have a stencil that I've had since I was a kid and I wanted to give it shape and mold it out of wax that i could then melt and make impressions with on fabric, kinda like fingerpainting as you would as a kid.

[nikkiart66]

Quote: Rather, it takes the path of implosion or congealing, and the thing to which it submits this stranglehold of immobility is not matter, but what vehiculates and subtends it: space itself.

The photograph seemed capable of raising the problem of reality in the grip of what Baudrillard would call “the mirror of production” in a way that the mere cast could not.

Comment:

It’s a very conflicting narrative to take casts of what exists already, although it may not always be apparent, like taking a cast of the space between the two rectangular boxes, it was always there but would have probably not been as significant to me or noticed even. I have taken casts in the past but they have been based on what is already there or as a way to mimics the natural. I’d like to explore not thinking so logical. I also found interesting the quote of how photography was essential in formulating the work even further than the cast could have done. The narrative that the pieces were given are the actual work because without it, the casting of miscellaneous things would have seemingly appealed to the notion of “junk”. Reproduction of casts also gives a sort of record of a past or of the current, it brings forth a characterization of the significance of that which was casted. I would like to play on this idea of reproducing, I have slightly ate,pied to do so in the past with cement, seeing how things erode or change with each repeated form I would make.

Question:

To which point does casting a repeated motif seem like enough? Can manipulation of what exists already serve as its own contingent space?

[nikkiart66]

Title: Center Stage

Medium: Palettes, Fabric, Concrete, Metal, Thread, Twine Rope

Dimensions Variable

Statement:

With this piece, I wanted to demonstrate this idea of pressure that comes with other people's expectations. I took two shipping pallets and had it hold up using only one piece of a metal line as I would continuously add on more fabric stuffed with concrete to it. It would get heavier the more wet concrete I would place on it. In terms of the display, I was reminded of theater sand bags that are used to help maneuver certain aspects of the behind the scenes innerworkings. These sandbags hold the strength of maintaining everything in balance, but are also at risk in collapsing. In turn, they became the main performer for this piece that could easily collapse at any moment. I used the shipping pallets in juxtaposition to sandbags because of their use to keep caution with fragile materials.

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Quote:   “The comic highlights gaps in logic that are falsely sutured in order to carry on with everyday existence despite incomprehensible upheaval. Central to my argument is that humor is a means not of escaping reality, but of confronting it and of engaging with the very questions that characterized the advent of conceptual art in the first place.”

Comment:

After reading the text, I found it interesting to note that humor can be serious in a sense when a work is evaluated.  Humor still causes a reaction in people, it speaks of the understanding of awareness just like any other reactionary emotion does, which is something I don’t think I understood very much until now.  I chose the quote above due to the perspective it provides when acknowledging that humor can be used to bring forth a thought-provoking re-evaluation of the self and otherness by provoking what we currently know and shifting how we engage with such things that can be transcendent.  I chose the above image of Duchamp’s piece from 1917 titled as “The Trap” due to the artist’s reconfiguration of the logic behind the ready-made object used like the coat rack that is nailed to a floor.  It is simply and comically out of place and Duchamp is purposely tripping the viewer up visually by changing the logical use of the object.  There is an action, movement is placed and displaced from the object to the viewer’s own recognition and acknowledgement of the object.  Personally, I have not consciously engaged with humor being the mode in which I go about my process, I think it is harder for me to shift gears and reconfigure a work by perceiving it from the humorous sense.

Question: Can humor be found after-the fact, when one does not create a work that primarily engages it? How has and does the evaluation of humor in a work change from today's own standpoint?