1. Reflection on the history, story and use of Jake Goldzweig’s object.
My partner selected this object because of the sacredness of the relationship he has with it.
This object is valuable to my partner because it allows him to travel back in time to a precise moment in the course of his childhood: during which he felt “relaxed, good and sheltered.”
The object doesn’t have a particular use. It simply permits such interaction as holding, which is highly valuable in the transmission of emotion.
The value of this object is typically defined by its development as a keepsake and its sentimental narrative constructed around it: which he uses today to provide himself with stability and reassurance.
2. Explanation of my own motivation for a piece that is based on Jake’s object and which uses visual replication.
The aspect of this object that I find most interesting is its significance as a representation of the educational, intellectual and emotional growth of individuals, through their daily experiences of life in an urban society, at a community, rather than solely personal level. In this particular case, Jake Goldzweig refers to the shift in his perception on caged animals. While as a child, he profoundly enjoyed observing animals lying on the other side of the fence, believing it to be a fun and humane activity, adulthood has made his regard the zoo as a form of humiliation for animals, forcing them to perform unnatural acts. The formal constituent of the object, which reflects the typical quixotic way in which a child perceives the surrounding world, is the highly unrealistic appearance of these illustrated animals, both in relation to shape and color: something which also echoes Jake’s flawed impression of them: “as free and full of life.” Now, Jake visualizes the cages surrounding the animals in the zoo of Chicago whenever he reaches out to the object.
My goal in replicating this object is to emphasize the unrealistic nature of the animals featured on the photographic frame, as a direct reference to Jake’s recognition of these animals as imprisoned, as well as the evolution in the holder’s knowledge and awareness of the world surrounding him from childhood to adulthood.
3. The method I will use to replicate Jake Goldzeig’s item is very simply drawing onto a large scale (45.7 x 61cm) drawing paper, using graphite as my medium. I will be creating three separate illustrations on this same paper, which will each feature the same photographic frame but different dimensional intensities as a means of creating a clear sequential evolution, not only in the accuracy of animal proportions, characteristics and movement, but also in the figures’ steady evacuation from the confines of the frame.
