Topic Two: Pattern and Ornament, Part 3. Assignment #4 DUE Sept 25 at 10 AM [CRIT]:

This project began with choosing a type of chair and creating your own version of that chair.

My version of the Sheraton chair

After I created my version of the style of chair, with three different view points of the chair, we had a class critique. After the class critique we had to crop from which ever view of the chair we wanted, the quadrant we were assigned.

 Quadrant I was assigned (A)

Next we were assigned to create an abstract art piece based on the idea of our chair and based off of the piece of the chair that we can see from within our quadrant. 

         As I began to brainstorm for my chair I had already thought of a couple of elements that I wanted to use in my piece. One of them was to create something 3D. Recently, I discovered an incredible artist that creates a relief sculpture of usually a face using Tule fabric. I have been wanting to use this material for a long time which is why I chose to use it in my piece. However, the Tule fabric does have a meaning with my piece. 

          I first began by choosing certain colors of Tule for my sculpture. I chose red, because I knew I wanted that color to represent a human, I chose brown, to relate to the usual color of a wooden chair, and I chose blue. 

          Next I started to think about what I wanted to depict in my sculpture. My initial idea was to create something non-representational and incorporate certain things from within my quadrant onto the piece, such as, folding the Tule to create a lot of right angles, arch, triangles, squares, which are all elements from within my chairs design. 

         In order to organize my thoughts better I began to draw out my ideas and I looked up the history of chairs and tried to understand how chairs came to be, their purpose, etc...

            After jotting down my ideas, I realized that I did not want to create something non-representational nor create something that literally relates to the chair based on the way it looks. This is where I made the decision to relate to my chair conceptually. I decided to take the purpose and meanings of a chair and create an art piece that has those same purposes, therefore, relating to a chair. I first thought about what a chair does, support a persons weight. This is where I thought that my art piece can have a certain element that supports another element in the piece just like a chair. 

            Next I was thinking about have a long skinny piece of red Tule go across the sculpture in some way which, upon more thought, I decided to make that red Tule look like a spine. Humans mainly sit in chairs, and often too much now a days. This is why I think the red works to depict a spine. The red shows the blood of a human, and the pain from sitting in a chair for too long. In addition, I chose to fold and hold the shapes I created with the Tule fabric with sewing pins. These sewing pins represent the "pins and needles" pain that we all feel after sitting down for too long. Here is a picture of the beginning of the making process. 

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I really enjoy the blue and the red colors together, however, I could not find much relevance for the blue being there. The process of creating the spine was simply laying of the entire piece of tule fabric and fold and crunch and hold it together with sewing pins, which I have experience from using a sewing project in a 3D class. 

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Continuing with creating the spine I removed the blue. I think that the entire piece was less distracting and easier to look at without the blue and it was easier to try and view and try and pull something out of the figure. The spine figure was being perceived, expect for the extra tule fabric on the sides. I needed to cut some excess off in order to sculpt the form out better. 

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Next I moved the form up in order to make the figure larger. I also cut some of the tule from the right side which was successful in helping the figure pop out, but, I still needed to cut more. Right now in the process the excess tule on the top and bottom is confusing and makes the figure look more like a candy wrapper. In addition to cutting some of the tule, I created a box platform that I attached to the back of the form board so that it sits right underneath the board. Attached to the top of the box is a structure made from tennis ball containers I had around the house. I chose this plastic material because it was see through and added support to the structure without showing it because it was see through. It also have the spine a curve forward that adds to the spine figure. 

(behind spine structure

pic)

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I then added the brown Tule into the piece to add more of the chair quality to the piece. I folded the Tule to look slightly column like to resemble the one leg that is in my quadrant. I then manipulated the brown Tule in the same way as the red Tule to elude to the idea that we sit in chair so much that they become part of us, or so important to us that they are mentally part of us in terms of how much we feel we need it. 

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This is mostly the final outcome that I ended up with. I cut more of the red and brown Tule on the right side to make the form much more confident in representing a spine. I also added the aspect of shadow. I thought that the shadow was more of an interesting and "cool" looking element more than something that adds substance to my piece. This is why in my final piece that I brought to class I did not include the shadow. In addition, in the final piece I removed the pins with yellow tips from the brow tule section and used needles that were much smaller and didn't show in order to have it more clear that the yellow pins on the spine are intentional and not just for structural purposes.

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(Left side view)

 (Right side view)

 (Front view)

Ultimately I feel that this project came out very successful. I originally wanted to make this piece a 3D piece on a pedestal that you could walk around. The professors noted this as well so I will change this for Juries. 

Overall relation to the chair: My piece relates to the chair in a more conceptual manner. The brown tule resembles a chair but plays a bigger role. It supports the weight of the red spine which is exactly what a chair does, which ultimately is how it relates to the chair. Also the needles symbolize the "pins and needles" pain you get in your back from sitting in a chair for too long. Also the spine has a very unnatural curve from a side view and the front which can happen from not taking care of your posture which can often happen from sitting in a chair for too long. Lastly but not least, I used the material of Tule because it is a type of fabric which has been around for thousands of years, just like the invention of a chair. The material is just as old if not older than a chair which is another way in which the material relates to the material used for chairs.