Red Tile (Sculptural response)
For this assignment, students were asked to choose an artist who inspires them and their work. The teacher then created a list and students were asked to select an artist that they weren’t familiar with and create a work of art inspired by the artist. I didn’t know many of the artists because they were mostly related to fashion and there were a few that I knew very well so I couldn’t make a sculptural response about them so I browsed the list meticulously. At first, I thought I was going to do a piece inspired by Yoko Ono but ended up switching to Carrie Mae Weems. I had never even heard of her and was delighted by the great artist I had come across. Weems works mostly in the realm of black and white photographs and has some shocking photos where the white is substituted by the color red. The general lack of color in her work really resonated with me because I also, almost exclusively, utilize black and white film to capture my subjects. So for my piece I was very interested in abstracting her work into colors and utilizing a red tile to symbolize how she uses red in her photographs. I also wanted to play with three-dimensions. Since photos are very two-dimensional I wanted to make something that had the volume to it so I decided to make rectangles and squares out of foam board to make layers. I secured the layers using T-pins and painted them with acrylic paint. I really enjoyed the outcome and how much of a presence it has in person.
