What is Sculpture? – ‘Kidz Culture’ (w/ artist’s perspective, research & development)
For this project I wanted to portray creativity and the free will spirit of pre-adolescence.
To convey this subject matter through sculpture, I decided to use inexpensive materials including cardboard boxes, paper tubes, and scraps of paper, just as any child would use to create their own imaginary worlds and unique situations.
influences include Urs Fischer, an artist whose sculptures express a sense of childlike imagination, and everyday culture among society. Fischer’s installation piece ‘Untitled (Lamp/Bear)’ is humorous and nostalgic, making the viewer taken aback by a life-sized stuffed bear. The artist uses a wide array of materials including wax, dirt and are usually large scaled, adding an absurd presence to his art.
A.R Penck‘s sculptures are primitive and crude, in which the style he encompasses resemble caveman art. What I find interesting in his series of sculptures is that the primitive characters and sculptures he creates contain a symbolic motif, a deeper meaning representing the human condition and human existence.
Penck’s subject matter often focuses on his experiences as a child living through World War 2 in East Germany. The artist’s early works were made with everyday materials including cardboard boxes and cans - this is due to the fact that he was penniless to afford more expensive material like bronze or metal.
I looked further into the psychology of children’s creativity as well as playgrounds, in which they are described from the book ‘The Playground Project’ as a ‘safe space that supports growth of specific areas of children’s development such as agility, proprioception, flexibility, ownership, imagination, social awareness and joy.’
In other words, the playground is a safe area for children to explore their creativity and enhance motor skills.
However, there is another option for the curious preadolescent, and we must look back to the basics: the streets.
From Helen Levitt’s street photographs of children playing in the streets of New York, it is much freer and is relentless to the safety of a child. The photographs depict the youth’s powerful imagination and energy at heart as they are seen drawing with chalk on pavements and playing games such as tag or make believe.
With that in mind, we can notice the contrast among the two approaches to child’s play:
the playground is sheltered and safe, the designs are appealing to the preadolescent with simple shapes and primary colours.
the streets are hazardous for the young and in the atmosphere they live in is often a grim experience in which they must create the idea of play and entertainment for themselves.
Despite how different the economic situation or how privileged one child is compared to another, everyone is born with an inherent curiosity about the world, and as they are not yet confided within the conventions of grown-ups, creativity and the imaginary mind is at its peak. It is a universal tool for survival and existance.
A quote from Wassily Kadinsky explaining the child’s fascination with their surroundings has become a base for this sculpture’s narrative: ‘The child is indifferent to practical meanings since he looks at everything with fresh eyes...in each child’s drawing the inner sound of the subject is revealed automatically’.
When making this piece I had to reflect on my own creative process as a child. In other terms, stripping away the ‘technicality of skill’ and instead becoming in favour of the preadolescent's perspective of something or someone.
So I started small - using play-doh/plastecine and other materials including crayons and googly eyes conveys a sense of nostalgia and the act of endless creating. A younger me would love making characters like these.
I also asked a couple of friends for their younger siblings and cousins to draw on the ground piece (a large cloth) and letting their creativity run wild. I feel this adds a sense of genuinity and raw innocence.
Along with drawing sketches, I figure out the structure of the piece using cardboard boxes and finding which one is best suitable.
Sprinkling sweets around the sculpture expresses the nostalgia of taste.
Materials: yarn, poster tubes, duct tape, cardboard boxes, card, plastecine and styrofoam.
I wanted to incorporate the primary colours and blocky shapes that are usually found on playgrounds, and at the same time the grittiness and raw nature of children’s street play with the use of cardboard boxes and messy ‘chalk’ drawings & writings.
Drawings on the boxes include knots and crosses, imaginary characters, colourful patterns and writings on the boxes are sayings children would often say.
Final Thoughts - I’ve learned that sculpture is more than just about making pretty things out of clay, but it’s what and how you use material to express a situation or emotion and the story you can tell out of something like a cardboard box. Using such material and the influence of Penck, Fischer and Levitt’s photographs gave me a foundation to reflect upon childhood memories and their culture of play and imagination in which all of us has had a chance to experience.
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