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Conclusions

I am extremely happy with how Father Fish turned out and am excited to make the object out of clay, though that will be a new challenge in itself.

The glow gives it a great ominous undertone which is what I was hoping for.

If it’s put against a light surface, the paint reflects and it creates a haze of light around the object, which is a nice addition.

I think the piece looks quite beautiful in the daylight as well, but it definitely needs something extra.

Improve upon:

evenness of glow paint

suspension (possibly buy big hook on which to latch it onto)

smooth out the surface to prime it for etching

consider what elements can be added to the sculpture to make it whole in the daylight and not have to rely on the paint for that ‘oomph’ factor

I believe this piece is a great starting point for further sculptures. I’d like to make an array of these animal skeletons and consider highlighting the struggles and challenges our ecosystems face due to the human hand.

I could also go in a different direction and connect each of the skeletons with religious motifs, as the iconography often represents religious figures in the forms of animals. This could be a critique of religion and the absurdity of selective sanctity we put on things.

Overall, I know things can always be improved upon, but I am extremely happy with what I made considering the situation and would like to continue this theme in further classes and in my practice.

***

#sdes3404

What If I Was God?

Colouring the Skeleton

Since I had made the model out of printed paper, there were a lot of patterns on it and so I had to dye it white. I don’t have documentation of this, but i decided that using a brush and white acrylic paint would take too long and perhaps come up uneven so I decided to mix the acrylic with some water to thin it out and put that in a spray bottle and coated the parts of the skeleton multiple times.

Here is the result:

The spine was made by coating newspaper pieces with the homemade glue and twisting them out. Because of this, the texture is very coarse and broken up and so I couldn’t print or etch on it. However, when the spine is made out of clay, the surface will be much smoother and I’ll be able to explore those ideas some more.

I also made a fin and some flippers and will attach all these things together to create the suspended skeleton.

#sdes3404

Glow in the Dark

I also wanted to create a glow in the dark aspect to my work. This wasn’t necessarily what was meant to carry the whole work, but rather a shock factor to it. I still haven’t resolved what I want to do to the skeleton to make it striking enough as a piece independent of the glowing aspect, but I will take this time to fully resolve that idea before going back into the studio.

I tossed up some ideas for etchings, markings or the artist statement on the skeleton, but this was unfortunately not possible to do considering the texture of the fish spine.

I bought White Knight Glow Spray Paint and experimented with the number of layers needed to achieve a proper glow. I also tested it on glazed and non-glazed surfaces:

The test tile is non-glazed and the plate was glazed (glossy). Both are fully white and the paint sticks to both extremely well.

I was also recommended at the place I bought the paint at to try and fill a tub with water, spray the paint on the surface and then submerge the objects to give it an even coating. While this wasn’t an option for the papier-mâché, it could have been a possibility for the ceramic skeleton.

So I still tried that technique on the plate and test tile:

This didn’t work out that well (the tile on the right is the submerging technique). The paint crinkled around the plate and barely coloured the test tile. So I found it best to use the classic spray-on method as it would give me greater control and brightness.

I ultimately found that around 6 layers was more than enough to coat the skeleton and give it a nice glow.

#sdes3404

Tackling 1:1

After talking to David, I wanted the size to be an important factor of the work. So I decided to make the length of it similar to my height (178cm). While I knew this could be a challenge, I was excited to explore how far I could push myself and whether or not this size would be a good factor in my work.

I originally wanted to construct the skeleton solely out of cardboard (as I didn’t have the space nor experience to use clay), but ultimately decided on making it a mix of cardboard and papier-mâché. I used old crossword puzzles and newspapers for the dry material and decided to go a step further and make my own glue. I used flour and water in a 1:1 ratio. The reason behind this was that I was inspired to look at recyclable and natural materials that I had a round my house due to an assessment task in another Fine Arts course (printmaking).

I started off creating a cardboard mould for the head in the size I want to eventually make it in out of clay:

I thought this would be enough but I was lacking dimensionality and so I decided to incorporate the papier-mâché into it:

#sdes3404

Clay Experimentation

I started out trying to construct a small head prototype as practice for the final assessment. Unfortunately, due to lockdown, I wasn’t able to do much and do not have photos of the other experimentation I did (such as constructing a prototype spine). However, here is some documentation of the jaw and head:

After having it fired, the paper burned away and what was left was a stable head mould. I couldn’t do much in terms of detail as it was so small, but I wasn’t planning on making it this size anyway. I knew that creating it in a larger scale would give me greater freedom to explore details.

#sdes3404

The Beginnings

I used paper that was due for recycling and scrunched it up in order to create texture. I then played around with how I could construct the head (as this was the most important part, in my opinion) without it collapsing and without having to sacrifice and of the detail that the actual head was comprised of.

Here are the photos I used as reference:

Anglerfish skeleton

Goliath Tigerfish skeleton

Some problems I encountered:

How to create intricate layers on the head without layering the actual (would-be) clay;

Creating the roundness in the head out of paper;

Constructing such an angled side profile but a round head-on profile;

Making it look like a fish and not an eagle;

Making two parts that would be stuck onto a head mould OR making the head mould and hoping for symmetry.

#sdes3404

Journal Entries

I jotted down some thoughts and technical workings in order to establish how I would construct a skeleton of such great size without it being too heavy or fragile. This is something I believe I have worked out now that it has been done in papier-mâché.

#sdes3404

Artists for Initial Inspiration

As a result of my research, I cam across some interesting artists that work/worked in this realm of fantasy and creature creation:

Kate Macdowell

Macdowell is an American artist that creates fine sculptural pieces out of porcelain clay, dealing with issues like climate change and the inextricable link between what is human and what is nature. “In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops.”

Invasive: Rabbit, hand built porcelain, 2016

The God of Change, hand built porcelain, 2011

Pedro Linares

Linares was a Mexican born artist best known for creating fantastical papier-mâché figures, now known as alebrijes. These creatures are amalgamations of a variety of animals and serve as spirit guides to humans after they have passed. They are always colourful in nature and have become an important symbol of Mexican culture.

Some of his work exhibited in The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

Beth Cavener

Cavener is another American-born artist that explores negative human feelings like apathy and anger and “encases them in animal form”.

Limerence, stoneware, mixed media, 2017

In Bocca al Lupo, stoneware, mixed media, 2012

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Research

When I first started out composing this idea, I wanted to make it an adult children’s story; to create fantastical, brightly coloured creatures that would live in equally fantastical worlds and re-awaken that sense of wonderment and imagination that comes so easily to children.

Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia Wrede

Tatzelwurm, by Culpeo-Fox

Billy Goats Gruff, by Nicola Robinson

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Artist Statement

What If I Was God? explores the thematics of ghost fishing and treatment of the intricate ecosystems and wildlife that make up our world. I was inspired by the ominous aesthetic of the Hydrocynus Goliath, with its large teeth and unusually developed jaw. By recreating its skeleton, I wanted to strip back any identification with a particular fish and make it representative of the species. The size and suspension of the skeleton give it a sense of grandeur and presence meant to instil feelings of awe and perhaps regret of what we're doing to our colourful fauna. The religious connotation (as the name suggests) of the work goes hand in hand with its size. This is the 'Father of the Fish', suffering and bearing his bones for the world to see - a saviour. Adding to it the symbolism of Christ and his representation as a fish in iconography, this piece branches out into something more and poses questions we may not want answers to. Namely, ghost fishing is a big problem in Australia (and globally), whereby animals continue to be hunted by rogue fishing equipment. Did this happen to the Father Fish? Will his resurrection ever come? This we do not know and can only hope of.

#sdes3404

SDES3404

This is a summary of blog posts dedicated to my final assessment task. Here I will add my artist statement, journal, experimentation, research and inspiration.

#sdes3404

Ceramic Technical Research

For the most part, I knew I wanted to work with very simple colouring. In the previous weeks, I tested out different types of white and gloss glazes and found (thanks to David) that the oyster white earthenware glaze would work best for me, as it creates an even film over the objects and gives it a great, glossy finish. I wanted to do this so that the objects would be universal, devoid of specific countries and simply ‘Yugoslavian’.

I would like to learn more about glazing and how to mix them to produce novel and interesting colours and textures. This is something I’d like to develop and work on in the future, as well as throwing.

Creative Process

After an incredible effort from the class and George, we managed to install all the projects for the exhibition!

Some problems I came across were that the plinth didn’t have a hole in the bottom so I had to drill one and thread all the wiring through that (thanks, Rabeea!) and the sensors stopped working multiple times, but luckily everything worked out and we managed to deliver an amazing exhibition!

My piece is titled Yugonostalgia. Looking back at where I started, I couldn’t even imagine that making something like this was possible. I was afraid that the work wouldn’t be enough due to its size, but when I saw it exhibited, I knew the story and intimacy would be more than enough to illustrate the meaning of my work. I learned how to use light sensors, even though I was originally planning on using RFID ones. A lot of time was spent in the woodwork space, remodelling everything to fit my intention. For the most part, my idea didn’t change all that much from its conception to the realisation. But I went from looking at privacy to wanting to make a trinket box to coming to the idea of specifically assigned drawers to visualising it as a building. I had a great time in this course and learned a lot. I’d like to continue using sensors in my future works and thinking of fun ways to implement them.

I believe my concept or reliving life in Yugoslavia was attained, but it could always be made more complex, by having different people talk of events or even more stories. I like that my work has the potential to grow.

The Finishing Touches

After the drawers were made, I set about recording and editing the sounds that would be used in my final piece:

In conversation with George, I decided it would be best not to leave the cabinet bland and wooden, but to make it into something else - I decided the structure looked like a building so I thought it would be best to replicate the Yugoslav Ministry of Defence Building that was bombed:

To do that, I spray painted the whole cabinet in black and painted on the scales with acrylic paints:

I decided not to paint the bricks but use the pattern on the actual building and print it out, paste it on cardboard and glue it to the cabinet to give it a more life-like look:

I traced out the look of the facade and cut out the brick according to it.

I then pasted it all together and dyed the inside black, since I knew it would protrude from the top of the cabinet.

I updated the painting to make it look more run-down:

Finally, after my consultation with George, I had to calibrate the sensor sensitivity to light and connect the audio files to a specific object:

This took a while, but I wanted to get it working just right. I hid the breadboard and Arduino motherboard in the back of the inside of the cabinet and glued them down to prevent them moving around during the exhibition. After sticking down the sensors, I threaded them through the bottom and it looked like this:

Lastly, I glued the brick pattern to the cabinet:

The ceramic objects came out great as well:

Except the brooch was visibly broken so I had to superglue it together and adjust the false bottom since the shape had slightly changed:

Final remodelling of the cabinet

I managed to cut out all the shapes, most of them with the cross saw. But I broke it (twice) and had to carve out the rest of the shapes with a scalpel (many injuries ensued). After that, I drilled holes for the sensors in the first false bottoms and tested out how it all fit together in the drawer. After a few tweaks and adjustments, I was happy with the result.

Continuing Preparation of Cabinet

Here I made the first layer of false bottoms (on the left) that the light sensor will be put under. I wanted to make sure the sensor as well as its cable have enough room to easily slip in and out of the drawers, allowing for more flexibility.

The panels on the left are my second layer of false bottoms which will be cut out to fit the objects, so the viewer knows how and where to place them.

Here you can see how the false bottoms fit into the now shortened drawers. All of this will be painted in black so as to contrast nicely with the white glossy objects and will hide the difference in types of wood I have used. It will also hide the slight protrusion the bottoms make in the hole of the drawer.

I had an induction to be able to operate the cross saw which will allow me to make cut outs of the objects in the panel without having to cut through the wood. This is done by drilling a hole in the panel and threading the blade through. Unfortunately, the machine broke which made for some unforeseen complications and has set me back in my preparation for the exhibition. However, I will go back on Monday and make sure to finish everything on time.

A large hole still needs to be drilled into the cabinet itself to allow the cable to go through it and into the plinth where the laptop and wiring will be.

I also need to find some hooks for the headphones which will be suspended on the front of the plinth.

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