Positive Fragments
The final project of the semester! It’s a clay mold of a wired fence with fingers sticking out of it, trying to escape. My college experience! “No Of-Fence.”
I knew I wanted to go out with a bang before graduating. Something that could symbolize my college experience, while still being less convoluted and confusing than my previous casting project last spring. I knew this should subvert viewers’ expectations, and still give them a chance to participate and gain a sense of unease (per the previous project).
I knew from reading Joanne Merwood’s article for the QCQ that I wanted something derivative of an object denied of its usefulness/purpose. What could fulfill that? Well, we’re always working within this wired cage outside. With such a cage, one would feel trapped. But you can still see what’s going on outside. You can still get a sense of direction and happenings. But by making a negative and turning that into a positive without being delicate, any holes are blocked out! So that cage becomes a purgatory, like a library or an office without a window. That’s a very mind-numbing experience. One could interpret some of those fingers being the middle fingers, as in “no offense.” as in I liken the fingers sticking out to those residents who couldn’t escape Pompei.
With the last three years of college (and really, the last dozen years going to school), I felt like a slave to my assignments and work. I might have been advancing my education and credibility. But my lack of direction and foresight held me back from experiencing so many opportunities. So many social events. So many clubs. So much fun. And now that I’m graduating, I’m just ready to leave and let go of all that crap.
I realized that I wanted the piece on the wall, but I didn’t have the foresight to put a string when I poured that plaster. I ended up reusing my amateur ladder from the last project, placing the plaster on the top step. It needed to be kept steady on the most unstraight step! Happily, it added to the tension of the piece, especially with there being four steps, four being the number of years it usually takes to complete your Bachelor’s.
Normally for final presentations, we would first do the performances, let the audience interpret them, and then the author does their explanation before getting the final critiques. For this one, I reversed the order. First, I let the viewers touch my piece without dropping the fragile thing. Audience feeling tensed and unease: check! Then I let them interpret the thing before I explained where I was going with it. And finally, I do the attack! It would've gotten worn out or destroyed anyway. Viewers’ jaws dropped! Shattering my “college experience” with the hammer wasn’t necessarily me despising those three years I spent. It was just a release of stress and moving on. There was no of-fence intended!
I had brilliantly hidden that hammer behind that wood panel, but the bag with the graduation cap was out in plain sight. That was meant to represent graduation coming close but…still concealed. But I may have just feared that jamming the bag behind the wood would tarnish it. I’ve gotten some criticism about how some of this was not thought out until *during* the presentation, and even relied on the audience too much. To be honest, I’ve had other assignments and projects that I struggled with devising and fleshing out not just this project, but the sculpture projects in time. Lack of direction.
I’ve also been told that I could’ve elevated the idea further. As proud as I am of how this one turned out, it’s hard not to agree. Since then, I've considered how I would expand this sculpture more…but I’ll hold it for some other time. I also wish I had someone else filming the audience's reaction. That would've been baller!
This semester has been a whirlwind. I wish I’d devoted more time to over-the-top sculpting. I’m sad to leave college without pushing the envelope further. But as it stands, I’m burned out. As I’ve done in the video, it’s time to move on…for now.