#sdes3404

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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