I still cannot manage to make my ideas look the way I want them to do. I do not know what it is, I do not know why it happens, I only know things do not turn up the way they are supposed to be.
For this project we were asked to build a sculpture influenced by the Form Wheel, addressing its conception of either the narrative or the material. I, however, decided to do both.
Body I is the visual interpretation and incorporation of the human body on the Form Wheel. Through its structure, it aims to allude to the ideas of the Cube and the Tree – or those of contraction and expansion – by incorporating them in the objective and fixed idea of the human body as a structure (contraction) and the expansion of it into one’s own interpretation (Expansion), where the body is not only a structure anymore, but a series of thoughts, worries and conceptions that are far away from the basic idea of a human body.
Close-Up of the wire breast
Close-up of the base and lower torso
To do so, the sculpture consists of two elements or components. A thin, rectangular, silver and wooden structure supports the lowest part of a female torso made out of white clay and wire. This last element stays solid and thick on the legs of the woman, and gradually decreases its thickness until – at the middle part of the torso – the clay only shapes the walls of the body in an irregular contour. From the left and right side of the structure, together with the back, one can appreciate 3 filaments of wire, one on each location, that draw the silhouette of a woman – the one who judges and distorts itself and her body more than any other. However, in order to satisfy the descriptions of minimalism involved in the idea of the cube, this representation was kept to the minimum details and simplest shapes. For this reason, the sculpture exclusively relies of the depiction of the right breast and the woman’s curves as its elements of identification.
Side Caption of the Piece
On my personal opinion, the body structure does not look as proportioned to the size of the base as I thought it would be. For some reason, this infrastructure seems to be too tall. Nevertheless, I have not yet found another size that I would like better. But not only I am not completely satisfied with this, but also with its proportions within itself and the idea of the human body. I believe the ration between the different parts of the body is not balanced. On another note, whenever I see it, I feel like the sculpture is not straight, but slightly bent towards its back, causing me some kind of irritation. However – and focusing on the positive aspects of the object – I do consider the combination of materials and texture was successful. Moreover, the use of silver for the base – together with the white clay and silver wire – reinforce the aimed idea of modernism and simplicity that is so important in the Formal Wheel’s conception of the Cube.
In light of the above, I want to believe Body I has a potential idea behind it. However, as I said at the very beginning of my reflection, it is not as visually successful as I would have liked it to be.
Hopefully one day I will manage to meet my goals.
Final Piece:
