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Sculpture/Combined Media Jelly Experiment- Cramping

25/2/21

This sculptural experiment was carried out on the 30th of January 2021, inspired by Eva Hesse’s ‘Untitled or Not Yet’ (1966), forgot to post until now! The idea behind this experiment was to create a sense of cramping (brought on by endometriosis). Often times, cramps can feel like your insides are being squeezed or wrung out, and this is what I was hoping to convey by squeezing jelly through a net bag.

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Movement Project Statement

25/2/21

Electives: Painting, Printmaking and Sculpture/Combined Media.

Upon receiving the brief for the Movement project, the first thing that popped into my head was non- movement, given the times we are living in. Lockdowns and self-isolation are our way of life during this pandemic, but a lack of movement has been consistent in my life since I was 10 years old. Endometriosis is a disease that affects 1/10 women in the world, but is often not spoken about, or swept under the rug. It is this disease that affects my movement, making it impossible to run, dance, skip or jump without causing constant pain for myself for days after. I decided to use Endometriosis as my angle of viewing movement for this project, given how much it restricts my movement. I decided I wanted to represent Endometriosis through Painting, Print and Sculpture in three separate ways.

Painting:

Using surgical photos of endometriosis through laparoscopic cameras to create paintings.

Creating acrylic pour/ marbling paintings to represent endometriosis through abstraction.

Combining 3D elements (staples, sewing, slashes, building a painting in 3D) within paintings to represent the feelings of confusion or being out of place.

Print:

Using the Rorschach Ink Blot Test to create prints with ink and Lino.

Using monoprint or etching to analyse pelvic anatomy.

Sculpture/ Combined Media:

Creating web-like or ‘sticky’ sculptural experiments to represent adhesions in the body and the sticky nature of endometriosis in its later stages, also known as ‘frozen pelvis.’

I was very happy with the amount of work I managed to complete for this project, given that I was working from home with limited resources. If I had more time I would have liked to create larger scale paintings, and experimented more with print processes if I had access to the necessary materials. I believe that I have achieved the majority of what I set out to achieve at the beginning of the project, and really enjoyed exploring new processes along the way.

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Painting- Surgery Photos

25/2/21

Following on from my original idea of using surgery photos as inspiration for abstract painting, today I did some small gouache on paper paintings, using surgery photos as reference. (Won’t post reference pictures here in case of tumblr deleting this account). I was hoping to do a larger scale acrylic painting of surgery photos but I ran out of time.

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Artist Research Book- Semester 2 Movement Project

Including:

Eva Hesse

Julia Hariri

CJ Hendry

Lee Krasner

Elizabeth Jameson

Kiki Smith

Joana Vasconcelos

All posts can be found individually on my Tumblr.

https://studentlit-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/k00255517_student_lit_ie/EXUezJP69-NOtsbPoJdjoy0B2zlLqAuPYbyfQ_p1RadoTA?e=Mj5Edx

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Ideas Development Book - Movement

Here is a short video of my ideas development sketchbook for the Semester 2 project of Movement. :)

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Painting- Rorschach Continued

25/2/21

After painting onto the underwear yesterday, I decided this morning to do a short series of Rorschach inspired prints on black paper with brightly coloured acrylic paint. I was really happy with how they turned out, some of them very clearly suggest hip and pelvic shapes to me.

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Artist Research- Eva Hesse

Eva Hesse (1936-1970) was an American sculptor, born in Germany. Hesse was known for her sculptural work with materials such as plastics, fiberglass and latex. Hesse was a key figure in the postminimal art movement in the 1960s. I am most interested in her work with rope and latex, creating sprawling web-like shapes.  

Untitled (1969-1970)

https://whitney.org/collection/works/5551

This is the one piece in Hesse’s catalogue of work that I find myself the most drawn to. The suspended rope, draped in latex, creates a sense of movement in my mind, a stretching, reaching and spreading. This piece seems like it’s full of life, exuberant and almost whimsical? Most of all I like that this piece seems to scream ‘fun.’ I would like to achieve a similar sense of life within my sculptural experiments.  

Connection (1969)

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/08/thoughts-on-replication-and-the-work-of-eva-hesse

The hanging nature of this piece reminds me of a dreamcatcher that I used to have hanging over my bed. The linear quality of it draws my eye up and down the piece, and I can imagine it swaying in the wind. I think this creates a sense of movement. I am also intrigued by the suggestion of weight in the piece, are the strings cast in latex heavy? The contrast between the thin, weightless string and the thick latex is interesting. The idea of recreating a similar experiment with candle wax is interesting to me.  

Ennead (1996)

https://www.icaboston.org/art/eva-hesse/ennead

This piece is really interesting to me because of the sense of drag, the strings seem to be dragging themselves towards the opposite wall and onto the floor. In contrast the previous piece, ‘Ennead’ seems almost lifeless, like the energy was sucked out of it, as it hangs limply above the ground. I do find that the tangled string is a very interesting texture and I would like to experiment further with that.  

Contingent (1969)

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/08/thoughts-on-replication-and-the-work-of-eva-hesse

This piece is an example of the variety in Hesse’s work. While it doesn’t interest me in the same way that the rope and string sculptures do, there’s no denying that this piece is captivating, the contrast in materials alone was enough to interest me.  

Untitled or Not Yet (1966)

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-eva-hesse-artist

This piece by Hesse is particularly interesting to me as I had an idea very similar to this shortly before seeing this image. The sense of downward pressure, the gravity pulling on the structure is really interesting to me. The idea I had was to place jelly inside of the net from a bag of oranges, and observe if gravity would make the jelly seep out, or keep it contained. Hesse’s work is obviously far more sophisticated than my first year student experiments, but having this image as a reference and inspiration is comforting.  

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Painting- Rorschach Ink Blot

24/2/21

Following on from last Friday’s tutorial with Giordana, in which she suggested the use of undergarments and also bringing ideas I had begun to use in print across to painting, today I applied the Rorschach Ink Blot test to underwear (clean, unused), mocking the idea of blood stains and pelvic anatomy. I applied acrylic paint to the underwear and folded it across, creating the pattern. I was really happy with the results, I think that the suggestion of hips and pelvic anatomy is really clear, even though I tried to steer clear of traditional blood colouring. The paint took really well to the more elastic fabric, rather than the cotton.

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Painting- Tights Continued...

24/2/21

Following on from painting the tights on Monday, I moved on to cutting and tearing them today, stretched over a canvas. I cut off the legs so I had less excess material to work with, and put holes and ladders into the tights with a scissors. I wanted this to suggest a sense of ruin, and also the small holes that are made in the skin for laparoscopic surgery to treat endometriosis. I then sewed up these holes haphazardly with brightly coloured threads, hoping to suggest a sense of feminity with the thread, given that embroidery was often a ‘women’s pastime.’ I wanted to give the impression that the sewing was done in a rush, or without care, as many women often find this to be the case after a laparoscopic surgery, which leaves behind raised scars. I have found that the scars left behind on my body after surgery have become one of my biggest insecurities, and I was hoping this would be reflected in this work. Overall, I wanted this pair of tights to serve as a visual representation of the damage endometriosis leaves on the body, even after countless treatments. I have also included a cut off from another pair of tights covered in paint, with holes cut out with a scissors and sewn up as a contrast to the lighter pair of tights.

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Artist Research- Julia Hariri

Julia Hariri’s ‘The Ecstatic Nudes’ collection first caught my eye on Instagram, and I was drawn in by the minimalistic lines and saturated colours. Hariri’s work is centred around themes of femininity and equality, drawing inspiration from the focus on the ‘perfect body’ mindset that dominated her upbringing. I really enjoy the sense of flow in Hariri’s work, demonstrated by continuous lines and no harsh edges. I also really like the continuity and balance between the colours that she uses, the pairings work well together and are pleasing to the eye.

https://juliahariri.com/collections/lineworks/products/ecstatic-nudes-fine-art-print

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Artist Research- CJ Hendry

CJ Hendry’s Rorschach Ink Blot Test was a major inspiration to me in my use of the ink blot test as part of the print elective. Hendry uses the Ink Blot Test to tackle the stigma around mental illness, and to invite conversations around the topic. The playful use of the paint is what interests me in Hendry’s work, as well as the ability to take such a serious topic and turn it upside down to allow the viewer to form their own opinions.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.dezeen.com/2019/04/10/rorschach-cj-hendry-white-bounce-house-dumbo/amp/

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.nylon.com/cj-hendry-rorschach-interview/amp

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Artist Research- Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner was an American abstract expressionist, who worked in painting, collage painting, charcoal drawing and mosaic. Krasner’s wildly expressive painting is what draws me into her work, the sense of freedom and rhythm within her painting makes it hard to look away. The extremely bright and almost overwhelming use of colour in these works below is what I find to be the most striking part of the images. I am particularly interested in her collage painting, as I didn’t associate this style with her work before I began researching her work further. I’d like to take inspiration from her collage painting during the remaining time of this project.

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/29/lee-krasner-living-colour-barbican-london-review

https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/exhibitions/lee-krasner-living-color

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5946185

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Artist Research- Elizabeth Jameson 🧠

Elizabeth Jameson’s work deals with life as a person with multiple sclerosis, using her MRI brain scans to invite conversations about life with a disability. Jameson’s conversion of clinical, monochrome brain scans to bright and colourful artwork is inspiring to me within this project, as I am hoping to work with surgical imagery and scans of endometriosis in the body.

References: http://www.jamesonfineart.com/about

https://www.medinart.eu/works/elizabeth-jameson/

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Painting- Acrylic Pour Experiments Continued

23/2/21

Today I continued experimenting with painting, focusing on creating textures within the paint and adding 3D elements to the canvas, using surgical images of endometriosis as inspiration.

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Painting/ Sculpture- 1 in 10

22/2/21

Inspired by the statistic of ‘1 IN 10’ women in the world suffering with endometriosis (the same statistic of people with diabetes), I lined up 10 pairs of tights on the washing line, with one stained red with paint and ripped, portraying that one person out of ten suffering with the disease. In Friday’s tutorial, Giordana suggested that I work with tights and undergarments during this final working week, and I think that the use of undergarments suggests a sense of privacy, shame and secrecy. It was quite difficult to capture a photograph of the tights due to the strong wind (great drying weather 😉) so I think that the videos do it a lot more justice.

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Painting- Acrylic Pour Experiment

18/2/21

This morning I experimented with acrylic pour painting, hoping to see the ‘cells’ or air bubbles within the pour, referencing the cells of endometriosis within the body. I experimented with washing up liquid, pva glue and alcohol mixed in with the paint as I didn’t have access to silicone which is most commonly used in this process. I’m hoping to continue with this process to see what results I can achieve.

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Painting- Experiments

16/2/21

Today I experimented with paint, ink, pva glue and vodka, hoping to create a rejection between the paint and the other materials. I was hoping to represent endometriosis within the black spots and splatters as it often presents this way within the body. Continuing with the idea of microscopic imagery and images through laparoscopic cameras this week.