Tag Archives: Culture

Space & Materiality: Project #1: Linear Planar Abstraction: Panic (Finished)

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Sketchbook

In-Progress

Finished Pieces

Reflection

The emotion I was tasked with capturing was “panic.” The composition that came to mind first was the asymmetrical one– the concept of an explosion of ideas, scattered thoughts, and the inability to hold them together really resonated with me. I wanted to capture the difficulty of making sense of things when you’re panicking, and the feelings that lead to panic. The symmetrical composition took a lot longer for me to think of– I tend to feel like panic is an asymmetrical emotion– messy and all over the place. In the symmetrical composition I chose to play around with waves of emotion in the first ring– a messy and overwhelming shape made from tangling pieces of wire that were manipulated to create the same shape– waves. Here I wanted to describe the way panic effects me– in surges at a time. I wanted the center triangle to represent self, and the piece overall to desribe panic that is more deeply imbedded within, rather than necesarily effecting those around us (that aspect being represented by the red circle on the outside.)

In the asymmetrical composition, line was less integral to the overall composition– instead the wire and lines were used to support each plane, and offer a less significant connection between each. I kept the wire thin to lead the viewer’s eye more toward each plane. By doing this I wanted to support the idea of confusion and disorientation. I made the use of wire more significant in my symmetrical composition, most notably in the wave pattern in the center circle. Here, I wanted the wire, rather than the plane, to represent disorientation and instability. In a way, the wave pattern is an extremely condesned version of my asymmetrical composition– ideas meld and crash into each other, creating that sensation of panic.

For my asymmetrical piece, I wanted to have constant shapes that were similar but not exactly the same (triangular planes). I wanted to wholly embody the idea of asymmetry, and I felt that make each shape slightly irregular contributed to their representing different ideas, scattered throughout the mind. In the same breath, I wanted to keep the shapes the same as to not overwhelm the viewer and make the symbols I chose overly confusing. I wanted the chaos of ‘panic’ to develop in the form and quantity of symbols, rather than by sheer confusion and melding of icons and symbols. Furthermore, I wanted the overall piece to have a more open volume, so that the viwer could feel as though the object is ingrained within the space, rather than drastically contrasting/challenging it. I wanted to capture the energy of panic, utilizing asymmetry as much as I could.
I felt similarly about my symmetrical piece; here I wanted each shape and symbol to contribute directly to the meaning. I wanted the form to be symmetrical, but I wanted to, at the same time, create that sense of confusion an instability present in the asymmetrical piece. I wanted to achieve a more stable and clear balance in these piece, but I wanted to challenge this balance by introducing intertwining wire and clashing lines. I used planes to balance out the piece, while the wire forms I developed contrasted with that. I wanted to create indefinitie forms, that (when tangled together) created a singular, symmetrical entity.