WHURL, 3D Gallery - Studio Journal

3D Gallery 3: Terrains

After working in 3D last year, in Photo 2, I decided that I would like to incorporate this modern day perspective into my thesis installation. Whether I decide to create an enclosed space or shoot my sculptures in an outdoor environment, I will incorporate a 3D landscape into my piece. If I am able to print a life-size photo, it would further explore my theme of lucid dreaming by incorporating the audience in becoming one with my installation.

Link toWHURL:

http://www.whurl.net/pages/gallery03/4_terrain.php

Alice in Wonderland, Quote - Studio Journal

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

- Alice in Wonderland

Pogo, "Alice" - Studio Journal

Screen Shot

     This screen shot, taken from the music video for Pogo’s song, “Alice”, was composed using vocal samples and different chords recorded from the Disney film, Alice In Wonderland. The jumbled and incoherent sounds give this video a very unusual, strange, and whimsical feeling. This beautifully remixed song brought me to the idea of adding sound to my installation. Using some type of garbled sounds may add to the dream-like experience I would like my audience to take away from seeing my piece.

Link to Pogo's "Alice": 

http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/v/?width=80&height=80&yt=pAwR6w2TgxY&flux=0&direction=bottom_left

Anthropologie, Clothing Store Display - Studio Journal

Floor Display

                  The floor display at a clothing store called Anthropologie, was exactly the kind of inspiration I needed to start looking into other objects I can create in nature. I really liked the contrast of the wood with the cardboard and fabrics. The “nature like“ print on the fabric keeps the environment intact, but it may be interesting to try the same idea with some bright colored fabric and painted cardboard. I also want to see if I am able to find some bark of a tree to manipulate and coincide with the cardboard. In our dreams nothing is usually what it seems to be and things are usually “outta wack” so I think this idea would work well with lucid dreaming as well.

Airan Kang, Light Reading - Studio Journal

Airan Kang's Digital Book Project

     The other week, when I got a chance to walk the galleries in Chelsea, I found myself drawn to these book - shaped sculptures by artist, Airan Kang. Kang's book sculptures are made of resin and LEDs (light emitting diodes.) The books in the exhibition are made to represent depictions of knowledge that realize the pluralistic spaces of our imagination. Kang visited and photographed many libraries and bookstores to recreate these environments.

One of Kang's "hyper books"

     Like Kang, I will be photographing many outdoor environments, to be able to recreate and get inspiration for the installation I will be creating for my senior thesis. I also like the idea of adding LED lights to my sculptures. I am thinking that I could somehow place the lights under some of the mushroom caps that I will be making. Seeing Kang's sculptures brought me inspiration on projecting some kind of video content onto my piece as well. I think that the media will contrast well with the organic beauty I want to convey with my thesis.

"hyper books"

Tetsumi Kudo, Cubes and Gardens - Studio Journal

"I now prophesy the growth of the new ecology in the swamp of "poluted nature" and "decomposing humanity."
-Tetsumi Kudo, 1971

Garden of the Metamorphosis in the Space Capsule, 1968

    A few weekends ago, on my way home from the gallery I work at on 25th street, I took a walk around the galleries in Chelsea. One of the galleries I went to was the Andrea Rosen Gallery where I got a chance to see work from a very innovative artist named Tetsumi Kudo. Tetsumi Kudo is an artist from Japan who works around the themes of humanity in a polluted, consumption- driven world. Kudo's centerpiece in the exhibition titled, Garden of the Metamorphosis in the Space Capsule, 1968, gave me some new ideas for my thesis. This cube sized room was made up of black lights, which played off the colors of the large flowers and hanging cages. These sculptures are made to represent "obsolete Humanist values."

Garden of the Metamorphosis in the Space Capsule, inside view

     Kudo's Space Capsule got me thinking of space. First, I need to remember the fact that I will be sharing the gallery space with the rest of my senior class. I started to come up with some new ways in which I will be able to put my installation in the space. Rather than place my installation up against a wall (where projecting may become an issue with other artists' work), what if I were to make some kind of enclosed space  that people would be able to interact with? Most of my sculptures will be durable for people to touch  so why not create a space where the audience can become apart of my piece.

Thesis Idea - Studio Journal

     The summer of 2007 I studied at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), as a sculpture major, in their pre- college program. For their end of the summer exhibition, I created a sculpture of a mushroom made of foam insulation, wax and mesh wire. The night I finished the piece, I apparently set it down near a trash can and it was discarded the next morning. I was very upset but really enjoyed making the piece, so I decided to look on the bright side and make an even better one.

Final Mushroom Piece

     I always felt this piece had more potential, so last year for my Video 1 B final, I created a video and projected it onto the mushroom. The projection was of a music video by artist, Aphex Twins titled Window Licker, overlaid onto clips from videos I had edited. I decided to choose this music video because of the strange and obscure things going on throughout it. I spliced it with clips I had edited of spirals of color and other "trippy" things I could find. Im really drawn to imaginative and whimsical themes  that are just out of the ordinary. 

Video Projection on Mushroom

     For my thesis, Im thinking of bringing Mushroom back to the public. I want to create a large installation including sculpture, video, and photography. I will create a series of things found in nature, made from man made objects, and have them on display in front of a large photograph I will shoot in the woods. I then want to project a video, that I will record in the destination I choose for the photograph, onto my installation. These are not definite plans, but just thoughts going through my head. I think this would create an interesting and interactive  piece so I'm excited to get the ball rolling on any new ideas I will come up with throughout my senior year.