ANDY: You think I don’t appreciate art? You think I don’t understand fashion? You think I’m not hip? You think I’m pathetic? A nerd? A lard-ass fat-so? You think I’m shit? Well, you’re wrong, ’cause i’m champagne, and you’re shit. Until the day you die, you, not me, will always be shit.
“You see us as you want to see us—in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…and an athlete…and a basket case…a princess…and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.”
Une Femme est une femme (1961) – A woman is a woman
The sub-ordinate was made to pierced through the sub-dominant of the model, however, this made the model gain stability and lose the feeling of tension. Thus, I modified the model for the sub-ordinate to be horizontal and wedged by the side of the dominant and cradled by the sub-dominant.
Modifications:
Materials used for final:
The sub-ordinate should be made thinner and made of a strong material to support the sub-dominant. I intend for the sub-dominant to be made of a heavy material (preferably stone or cement) in contrast with a hollow and lighter dominant, to intensify the tension. The dominant will be made using acrylic or wood.
Testing the effect of brass:
Brass was ideal to hold the sub-dominant and dominant.
Using plaster for sub-dominant:
I decided to use plaster for the sub-dominant as I wanted something heavy (initially, either stone or cement). As plaster is quick-drying, I chose to use it instead.
Mold for plaster castingAttaching the sub-ordinate onto the mould for cradlingPour plaster mix into mouldDry overnightTest model
The plaster was too heavy to be supported by the bass strip and hollow acrylic cuboid. Thus, for the final model, soft clay will be used to create the illusion of weight with similar texture to plaster.
Acrylic box for dominant:
I tried using blue acrylic for the dominant (an aquarium). The finishing was not good as a glue gun was used. Acrylic glue will be used for the final.
OVER-ARCHING CONCEPT – emotional quality of textiles
I have always been interested in the visual quality of textiles and believe that they do hold an emotive quality to them. According to “Emotional textiles: An introduction” by Alice Dolan and Sarah Holloway, material objects such as garments and textiles”provide a wealth of opportunities for reconstructing material vocabularies of emotion”. I aimed to recreate the two-dimensionality (prints) and three-dimensionality (texture) of textiles on a flat piece of surface using materials and mark-making tools involved in textile design and fabric-making.
INSPIRATION
Jan Koen Lomans is a fine artist who works with textiles to create his emotive, abstract compositions of the theme of nature. He assembles different fabric and textiles in each composition to capture the emotion using lines and texture. However, the use of colour impacts greatly on the emotion and that may be a limitation in my using of textile mediums for mark-making.
JOY
To me, Joy is silent, quiet and subtle. Flowing gently, I wanted to use the lines to convey calmness and the smoothness of the emotion. Inspired by the lines and folds of pleated cloth, I used thread as a medium and composed the movement line by line using fabric glue.
Using different threads of different colours (white and gradients of black), I tried to created the folds of these sculptural fabrics. Using space between lines to convey depth and volume, I tried to incorporated the three dimensionality as much as possible.
SURPRISE
Surprise has an obvious narrative, where elements are built up and then exploded in an moment. Inspired by Lomans’ textural use of the terrycloth (fabric made of tiny loops or protrusions), I sourced for similar material to imprint and to experiment with its texture.
I found tiny puffs of similar material of varying sizes and used them as a mark making tool with black acrylic paint. I also experimented with loose wool by fixing it upon the prints. However, it had more of an implication of decay than intended and thus was not used.
LOVE
Love is composed of prints made from crochet patches, a symbol of personal craft and maternal love. I feel like this print was not the most successful in its composition and does not capture the texture of the textile printed.
Crochet fabric
Initially, for the emotion of love, I worked with black satin fabric and embroidery with white thread. But due to incompetency of embroidery skills and time constraint, I was unable to create a print that could convey the emotion of love, an explosion of feelings, well. Thus, I used the prints made with crotchet instead.
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Created using spunned wires and painted over with acrylic paint
FEAR
Fear is made of repeated, contrasting prints of black and white coupled with textured line quality liken to fabric composed of thread. I intend for the quality of black and white film-noir films, where contrast between light and dark is used to evoke suspense or fear.
I used a roller, liken to the technique of a fabric press, where ink are rolled onto a surface to create prints.
Experiments with paint and roller:
ANGER
Anger is the outburst of uncontrollable emotion that is triggered by the built up of tiny irritations. Tiny metal sequins and feathers were used as mark making tools, inspired by a textile design I found in a book.
Stephane Rolland, Summer 2012
SADNESS
Sadness is experienced through a gloom around your life, where there is misdirection and uncertainty. I used spay-paint over tulle fabric to capture the darkness as well as to capture the print of the tulle fabric.
I experimented with other fabric but only the tulle was porous enough to recreate the print onto paper.
I defined tension as evoking a sense of uncertainty and insecurity, that acts to create suspense. Using the act of pulling by gravity, I gingerly balanced the sub-dominant component to slightly levitate above the ground, to create instability. The connecting sub-ordinate was asked to be as thin in width as possible to create the illusion of hanging and balance upon a thin surface, amplifying the tension of the floating component versus the rootedness of the dominant component.
Front & Back view
Side views
Top viewBottom view
2D SKETCH ANALYSIS
Red- Dominant, Blue – Sub-dominant, Yellow – Sub-ordinate
MODIFICATIONS
To compose a more complex structure, I used piercing by extending the sub-ordinate through the sub-dominant component. The subordinate is also wedged into the dominant surface.
Problem: By extending the sub-ordinate, it gives more stability to the structure but contradicts the theme of tension. Previously, the sub-dominant structure was hanging upon a point, creating more tension.
