Sometimes you have to take something apart and re imagine it. For some week’s I really was not happy with the original use for the head in this new sculpture. First of all I was not happy with the shape of the head, so over a period of days I went at it with the chisels until I was happy with it. Next I started to re asses what it was balanced upon and I feel this interpretation works the best. I now want to look in to 3D scanning the head part and printing it so that I can then use it as a component in a few other sculptures. . . . Maltese limestone, house brick, concrete brick, found pine wood, desk rubble. . . . .
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Study of sculpture charcoal, chalk, ink on envelope of Amazon origin
Having not done any drawing for a few weeks, I decided it was time to pick up the charcoals, chalks and inks. Drawing really is a discipline which I really get a lot from. I find I that whilst drawing I’m able to find a clarity thinking about and more importantly what I’m working on, trying to find new solutions to questions or compositions.
As can be guessed there is a lot of stuff rattling around in my head at the moment, currently I’m still processing information from a tutorial I had a few days ago with my tutor David Hancock. One of the subjects raised was how my work seems to be rather current and of the moment and that the materials I’m using to make my work can have a loaded meaning.
Case in point Amazon packaging envelopes, if you look back you can see that I have drawn on the inside of these envelopes for quite some years. This practice came about as I used to save said envelopes, I hated the idea of them being recycled when there could be other uses for them. Naively I never thought that the process of doing this would be seen as a comment on current society and spending habits.
So let’s take a minute and think about what the Amazon envelope represents in the current climate. For some Amazon stands for mass consumerism, with non-essential shops closed due to COVID lockdown restrictions Amazon is at the forefront of the e-commerce market, sending out billions of parcels a day, making it hard for for small independent shops to compete not only on delivery costs but also costs of products. Amazon is the Shark within the water eating up all its competition.
This also has made me start to reassess my involvement with Amazon. Amazon makes it so easy to get stuff without having to leave my house, my usual purchases are CD’s and books as let’s admit it they cannot be beaten on price. I also have Amazon Prime for watching television and to get free shipping on my orders, but now I have to start thinking if this is all ethically sound?
Going forward I will most probably still draw on these envelopes whether they are my own or collected from friends, as they have become part of my visual language until I am able to find a new medium to repurpose and draw on.
The two sculptures in this photo are the same piece, what has changed over a short period of time is the warp in the piece of wood used.
In the picture on the left the structure is standing upright, this was assembled shortly after the piece of wood ( green oak) was freshly cut.
Over a period of weeks as the wood has dried out and started to season, an internal struggle has begun. The wood is starting to warp, causing a natural tension and almost vulnerability within the sculpture, pitching it forwards and causing even more of a balancing act.
Now normally I would be upset by the instability of this piece but really it ads to it. Transferring the stack of brick off cuts, pieces destined to be cast away and become land fill, bricks usually seen as steady an stable have now become fragile and vulnerable. The original strength of this structure has now become somewhat weaker, through the natural forces within its build.
So I started this piece of work “The restless thoughts of a tired and restless mind” during the last lockdown. In many ways I felt it was unfinished as the idea was for the plastic to act as an attractor of the wind, for the head and pole to act as a stabiliser. Thus the plastic became the metaphor for the the thoughts dancing and swirling in the wind. The only problem was it would not support itself for long as the balance was all out of whack. Today after an hour of counselling a moment of clarity hit me, use the collected stones with holes through them as counter weights. As can be seen from the film it is a solution but as with everything during these times weather it stands or falls is always in the balance. . . . .
3D scanning or should I re phrase it to scan or not to scan? I’m still trying to get my head round the software. This free version of Skanect is starting to frustrate me, there seems to be a problem as I can not see what is scanning and really have to hope for the best.
The above screen shots are from the scan once it has been put through the Meshmixer program. In many ways I am excited by what is presented as all detail is lost, but is this what I am trying to go for?
I know the saying is you can not run before you can walk but I would also like to get at least one good result.
I also have to start thinking about the upcoming symposium we have six weeks until we have to present something and really i have no idea of what I am going to do, I’m totally lost. On one hand I feel as if I am on the brink of something new and on the other I am wondering if this is something I want to explore more, or do I want to stay safe with materials and processes that I know well?
What does not help is that we as a country are going back down in to another lockdown, this really is not good for anyone’s psyche and it seems to be effecting me more than I want to accept.
I decided to have another play with the world of 3D scanning using my budget set up. For some reason the Kinect 360 would not interface properly with the software or should that be the other way round?
Even though the results are rather interesting, like my sculptures the images have become distorted and fragmented, but what to do with them? Yes I can make screenshots and maybe blow them up but as 3D prints I’m interested in how they would work? I expect I will have to commit at some point and save one of these scans to truly see what can happen
The more I look at this the more intriguing it is, yes it is a fairly low resolution 3D scan of one of my Memories of Moore sculptures, regenerated within a digital realm, but something about its translation has become organic and almost human. The textures of the brick have become smooth and flesh like and the surface of the desk looks like snow or is it ash?
The question now is should I reinterpret this as a painting? Or should I even do a reinterpretation of it? what will a painting of it add to the mix? So many questions and no real answers. Or should I det the scan to a point where I can print it and see what happens.
It really is all very tantalising
In some ways it reminds me of the exhibition I saw yesterday (28.10.20) at the Castlefield gallery in Manchester, as part of a site visit with Salford University MA. The exhibition was called Soft Bodies the opening paragraphs of the exhibition hand out are rather interesting.
” Soft Body dynamics is a field of computer- generated graphics which creates simulations of soft materials such as muscle, fat, hair, vegetation and fabric. The increasing availability of this kind of software has given artists new tools to make work; manipulating ‘ digital clay’ in limitless space. These 3D digital works are. however primarily experienced via the flat surface of the screen, as still or moving images. This may prompt questions about the contribution these works make to how we experience, understand and imagine our bodies. Do these smooth surfaces ultimately leave us feeling distance and disembodied- and. is that necessarily a bad thing?
This exhibition places works made with these digital technologies alongside photography, painting, drawing, and prints in. order to consider the shared limits and potential of these mediums. In particular the ability to call for worlds beyond their two-dimensional surfaces. with figurative and abstract, actual and virtual content, soft bodies explores how these works might conform our experience of being in a body, with its own insides and outs, boundaries and internal worlds. In places the exhibition points towards experiences of the body beyond everyday language, considering the. speculative. potential of these works to inform a comprehension of the body in relation to the politics, technology, the image, gender, race, sexuality and the future.” Quotes from the soft bodies exhibition handout, Castlefield Gallery, 16th of September 2020 – 1 November 2020.
Whilst viewing the exhibition I may have looked rather blasé, but I was taking everything in I was intrigued by the paintings that were on display how the amorphous bodies blended from one into another melting away in to the landscape ( the art of Xiuching Tsay), or how something that looked like a digital photo was actually a photorealistic painting of a digitally formed object (the art of Robin Megannity).
Xiuching Tsay Spoiling Our DesireApocalypse Resort Robin Megannity
So how could I take this digitally flat three-dimensional image and turn it into something tangible and maybe even visceral? I expect in many ways I have to research this process some more to finally realise its full potential.
At times I feel like I am racing along jumping from one medium to the next but not really settling on the one do I now want to be throwing this in to the mix?
Below is photos of a conversation I had with the ceramic artists Lea Bigot on Instagram in response to my recent explorations in to 3D scanning and the printed result.
I had to photograph it and include it here as it says so much of what I’m thinking about the realm of 3D scanning and what can and could be achieved, if this is something I want to explore further.
Well here is last nights break through, I’m still trying to get my head round this world of 3D scanning on a budget, with my Kinect 360 and Skanect software. As you can see it kind of worked, I like the way it has a natural/ unnatural feel to it. It has created its own false reality with the table top degradation, it looks more like a past monument found in the future, yet with the smoothing of the form and the colours it also looks very organic? Now I have to figure out how to save these files, if only I was more computer savvy. . . . .
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And so for my final post, to most this selection of brick fragments, limestone shards and random pieces of wood, look like they should grace the bottom of a bin. In reality they are as important as some of my tools, as they are how I am able to get my textures on my ceramic pieces. . . . . .
The Art and musings of Jeffrey Knopf 