Loo rolls and toilety things

Being now in the half term break I've had a breather to gather my scattered brain cells, attend to various bits and pieces at home and now this,  my neglected blob.

Since being back at school my myriad thoughts have gravitated towards 'focus', 'perception', and 'time' whilst concentrating on the figure, namely the portrait - the human face.  Lots of ideas to follow up and investigate although for the last couple of weeks my intentions have been solely to create work for an upcoming exhibition.  We have to organise an exhibition for this Fine art course anyway.

The opportunity of a collaborative group exhibition in the Edwardian Cloakroom in Bristol meant

creating art work as a response to the venue.  The venue is an Edwardian toilet, a purpose built building with both a male and female side and their own entrances.  The Council now makes it available as an exhibition and art space.  It is however, still very, well,.......... toilety!.


Thoughts went into overdrive but I kept coming back to the history of the place and the 'time' aspect.  I researched Edwardian life and after reading about their reluctance to acknowledge their bodily functions, decided to embrace the whole toilet thing and started thinking about what I could do with toilet roll.  After all, no matter how advanced we think we have become we are still subject to these same basic animal activities, albeit things are a bit softer and more quilted these days.

The layers on a toilet roll made perfect sense to me as I see time as layers.  Time is after all a human concept but often thought of in a linear way.  However, it makes more sense to me to see time as layers.  The earth has layered strata relating to time scales, and history is created by adding more layers to it.  

Being in the old building I couldn't help but imagine and think about the many people that would have  passed through its doors.  I imagined ghostly echoes and images of faces.  White ghostly faces on white toilet paper made sense to me here.  Happy people that would have visited in between shows at the theatre that had been opposite at the time.  Maybe people visited as they felt ill or emotional.  It must all be here, ingrained in the fabric of the walls, the walls that are peeling, exposing layers. 

 I intended my work for the ladies side.  Maybe it's because I can relate more to this side but it also feels more comfortable here.  

Initially I thought about carving into toilet rolls, carving faces while at the same time cutting through and exposing layers.  These would be my layers of time.  Was there some sort of hardener I could soak them in to enable me to do this?  I could think of nothing and so proceeded to work out how I would create toilet rolls with faces in plaster instead, although not completely at peace with the compromise.  I had it pretty much worked out and then it dawned on me that these needed to be porcelain! Yes that was it! Hard and shiny like the toilets and basins.  It made perfect sense and I loved the idea of the contrast to fragile paper.

First toilet roll created

Bridget at college was a great help and recommended a suitable porcelain clay for me to buy.  It  is suitably white and incidentally has flax fibres in.  It meant though that due to the time scales of drying and firing etc I needed to get them all done within a couple of weeks.  I worked out and created card templates that I could cut around on rolled out clay.  A circular shape for the top and bottom, a rectangle that would create my inner tube and a rectangle for the outer of the roll, so they are effectively hollow.

Additionally (after much thought on how to achieve it), I added the rolled paper texture to the top and what would look like the loose end of the roll to the side.  I indicated lines of perforations and had considered quilted textures too but decided to keep it more simple to make the time scale.

 In all I have created six toilet rolls.  I call toilet rolls big marshmallows in my house as I'm sure the kids must eat them, it's the only way to explain the rate they disappear.  (They'd break their teeth on this lot)

 I decided I needed at least six or seven to cover any breakages in the kiln as I wasn't convinced that I didn't have trapped air in at least the last joins when I put the tops on.  This is because I couldn't apply too much pressure here or the whole thing may have warped.

Two more examples whilst still wet clay.

Well, fingers crossed and they will survive firings and glaze.

To be continued..................

                                                               

Do Ho Suh in the Easter holidays

Well I’ve learned to accept that artwork for me in the school holidays goes out the window (as I don't think helping make a pom pom easter chick counts as art).  Attempting to do any is futile and acceptance of this fact is easier than dealing with my subsequent frustrations.  Anyway, youngest sproggie was keen to go to the museum which was great I thought, it’s free for one thing, and also it meant I could at least do something art related, go and look at the Do Ho Suh exhibit.  I came across his work a while back when I had also discovered Rachel Whiteread and was thinking a lot about space.  It was also relevant when I was thinking of sculpture and playing with mesh like fabrics and stitching to portray the figure. 

  

 At the museum we weren’t in time for the talk but then, one of us may have been a bit too fidgety for that anyway.

  Do Ho Suh’s exhibit at Bristol Museum was New York City Apartment Corridor/ Ground Floor Plus Staircase.  This was based on his home in New york, a mesh fabric replication of the space and internal architecture.  Included were details such as light switches and door knobs all intricately shaped and sewn into the fabric.  Like a gazebo or tent the installation folds neatly up and can then be packed into suitcases.  It is very much a ghostly echo of a more physical space. 

 

From what I have read Do Ho Suh’s work revolves around ideas of relationships to space, as an individual and a collective.  Space in terms of our home that we occupy, even our clothes.  He also deals with memory, displacement and identity.  A very interesting artist that I had only associated with these mesh architectural type of works but having looked, came across some other amazing things he has done.  

  

I really love these:

 http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2012/03/amazing_new_besthoff_sculpture.html

http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/events/2012/january/11/do-ho-suhs-floored-genius/ 

Ghosts

In the same vein as the plaster soaked fabric I was having draped over me in the (unsuccessful) attempt at creating what I wanted I found this:

It's 'The lasst supper' by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski created in 1984.  Great aren't they!  It's in the Goldwell Open Museum in the Nevada Desert.  He worked from Leonardo De Vinci's fresco of the Last Supper and wanted to create a modern day representation of Christ's last supper. He has done two other similar ones at Goldwell one of which is 'Ghost Rider. (They do look like a cartoon representation of a ghost as they are referred to).

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-last-supper-in-ghost-sculptures













.............And then there are works by US artist Daniel Arsham:


 Talking about 'Bound Figure' below.                                                                                                                    
"I made a number of these works over the last few years so I’ve figured out the best ways to make them work. This work involves draping and actual figure shaping, getting the shape of the fabric right and then creating the body out of fibre glass. The work is then brought to the gallery and plastered into the surface of the wall to appear as it’s one form".
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2014/12/17/daniel-arsham-recollections-interview/

Bound Figure

  He does a lot of interesting work with the theme of things out of context, and messing with 

  reality which I find appeals to me although he generally works with no colour as he is colour

  blind. 

I love these and the one above is more akin to what I was after but looks like I need to work in fibreglass and resin for the structure to be strong enough, but this brings me back to the practical problems again of stinky resin and nowhere to do it.  They say a man needs a shed but this woman needs one!  Depends if student finances will stretch but I don't know about casting, having somewhere quiet to escape the sproggie chaos is very appealing.  I could live in it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.danielarsham.com/

 

 

 

 

Project 2: Experiments in life casting continues

My attempts with the alginate are on hold until I get some more and having not really done anything for a week due to being ill has spurred me on to make up for lost time.  The weather today was rubbish so it seemed a good plan to explore some more ideas. I'm still trying to indicate form with something without it being solid.  I like the idea of using wire and mesh but without quite knowing how to go about it at the moment I also had the idea of using fabric soaked in plaster to indicate form.  Not to wrap around completely but to indicate it, as if it had been blown into an invisible thing and taken its form.  The only readily available form I have to use as a model is myself and my happy to assist partner who is used to my strange requests.

I decided the granny net curtain material, being mesh-like would hold the plaster well. Knowing what a mess I tend to make I covered the bathroom floor in black bags before positioning myself on a small table and anchoring my foot in the towel cupboard, with the idea the fabric would drape down in front of me while catching body contours.  The fabric was soaked in crystacast plaster and draped over before pouring a few more bowl fulls along the length of the fabric until we thought there was enough.  I did ask that warm water was used for the plaster but when it trickles down your back it still feels pretty cold!  (At this point I was wishing I had taken time to find a more comfortable position, whilst also worrying that at some point one of the sproggies would be wanting to come in for the loo).

Normally plaster sets quickly, unless you have cramp in a leg and are getting really cold, so next the hair dryer was employed.  I did think that perhaps the plaster wasn't thick enough but when my leg beccame unbearably painful I no longer cared and the plaster was prised off.   Ouch, ouch!.........mental note to self to rub petroleum jelly on first next time!
Well sadly the plaster was not quite thick enough and the form pretty much collapsed, although at this point I was now busy in the shower using an exfoliating sponge on my skin, trying to rub away the stubbornly adhered plaster which was gradually coming away along with the top layer of me.

Well although not a successful outcome, I think if I do it again (glutton for punishment), there needs to be perhaps an initial layer of mod-roc on me before the plaster fabric is applied and this would possibly give the whole thing a lot more strength and stability.  Anyway, it made for a more interesting rainy sunday.

Project 2: Experiments in life casting

Well following on from my experiments with materials I really need a better form on which to base the material.  The hand casts were not ideal as so small and fiddly, so I thought I really needed a head cast, which by my reckoning would provide a more recogniseable, larger and flatter form for the materials.  I had bought a small packet of alginate a few years back which provided a really successful way of replicating the hand casts and one face cast of a guinea pig friend.  So having recently bought another larger bag of the stuff off of ebay,  I got myself fashionably attired in black plastic bag, and having chickened out of full head cast, instructed partner in the method of face casting, (and drank lots of wine to alleviate fears of panic and claustrophobia). I hate the feeling of being shut in, added to which I have the associative memories from teenhood when I got a friend to cover my face in plaster while I led down.  The straws that were supposed to maintain airways had lots of gaps around them which allowed the plaster to seep up my nose.  Anyway, this wasn't nearly so bad, although the comments, "its a bit lumpy", it's not sticking very well", and, "it's not like the stuff in the video you showed me" should have made me realise all was not well.

"Ah it will be fine", was my optimistic response (before my mouth was sealed shut) and we continued after with the mod-roc application.  This was the only really claustrophobic bit.  This was the bit that made the world become darker and my anxiety begin as I worried about a plaster cast of the inside of my nostrils.

That thankfully didn't happen and all was fine,  but.........when we removed the cast the alginate all came apart in bits.  That wasn't supposed to happen,.......bum!
I have since had more success in mixing the alginate with a blender in that it removes lumps and sets better but subsequent attempts at using it on various body parts has proved that it is a duff bag.  Maybe it's old or something but it wouldn't even replicate my daughter's hand very well so looks like I will have to source some more and put it down to experience. Back to the drawing board, as they say.

Project 2: Experiments continue

Well continuing on with my experiments to create body form in an in-solid way I did some machine stitching on disolvable fabric.  This is the stitching having disolved the fabric.  At this point I got quite excited by the stitchy mesh I had created (each to their own, I know), but I loved the feel of it and I didn't wash it too much and it still had a bit of a gloopy feel from the remainder of the fabric that turns into a gluey substance as it disolves. It was just placed on a piece of paper to dry.

I then used good old PVA to stick it to my hand casst.  I also really liked the look of it at this stage.

Well the result was quite nice, although it didn't give any indication of the form of a hand.  I think if this was maybe done over a bigger form, or even that of a face it might retain some idea of the body shape a bit more although will remain quite fragile.  It was obviously a lot stiffer in the denser area of stitching though.

Anyway, If nothing else, I like the look my hand cast is getting from all of this distressing.

Project 2: Experiments

Well my first attempt was using granny net curtains, (the ones that are just mesh) with PVA to see if this would stiffen it enough to take the form of the hand.

The single piece would just not stay in any of the contours with the PVA and was just too floppy a fabric, so then I ripped some strips, distressing areas into threads before applying the glue.

 

I did like these stiffened thready bits as this is more along the lines of what I'm after (I think)

Well although it's half term everyone in this household seems to have some sort of lurgy, well apart from me and the dog, so not being able to go anywhere has at least given me time to try some more.  The next material being crepe paper.  This has a kind of subtle crinkled surface which gives it a kind of stretch.  Ideal I thought for taking contours.  Unfortunately it's way too fragile in a single layer as when I tried to brush on a bi of PVA it broke apart so instead I had to use a few layers.

The end result looks a bit too solid and a bit like papier mache but I do like the look when it has light shining through it and I like the unevenness which almost looks like skin and its wrinkles and lines.

Project 2: The begining

I've spent the last couple of days scouring websites and reading up on moulding and casting materials.  It seems there is nothing you can't make providing you can sift through the mountain of information on materials and techniques, oh, and you can afford to buy it all of course.  I find it all very exciting but at the same time I'm quite befuddled by the different types of materials including resins.  I did buy some general purpose polyester resin as polyester stuff is what I was familiar with, having spent some of my childhood encapsulating any unsuspecting bug in the water clear kind.  What a cruel child I was, but I did move on to making polymer clay models and casting them instead.  What does amaze me, with all of the health and safety data included these days, is how it was non existent then.  This was in a kid's craft set back in the 70s and I did this in my parent's kitchen, well, before being sent to play in the garage.  The stuff stinks, in a real toxic kind of way, they recommend masks now and I used to get covered in it.  It would never wash off, instead turning black from all of the fluff and dirt that adhered to its stickiness.  Well what I didn't know then, but do now is that acetone will do the job.  So anyway, this is very much an experimental journey, and not being ready to get plastered or unleash the smelly toxic resin fumes, I thought I would dig out these hand casts I did a couple of years ago with alginate and crystacast, and start by trying to seal them with the idea of then applying test materials, hopefully stiffen them (somehow) with the intention of pulling the material back off and it retaining the cast form.  So far they have had a coat of shellac.

My kitchen that has gradually been morphing into a studio is now going to become a workshop too I'm thinking.  Ah well, eating is overrated.

During my searches I came across this useful site, (for me anyway) and there is an interesting bit on the resin casting of Rachel Whiteread's 'Monument'.

http://www.smooth-on.com/gallery.php?galleryid=173