Conceptualize 3 ideas for projects to work on this semester:
- Daily Portraits of Garments in Nature
Ideas here being to investigate archetypes through garments in nature. Taking a piece of clothing on my walks with me and trying to photograph it in a way to anthropomorphize or create a portrait. During isolation, nature takes the place of society. Rocks and tree become bodies and the friends we seek. Using archetypal names for the photographs I am trying to reach my viewer, to bring them into the conversation about loneliness, yearning, and in the end making do. Things to focus on while I progress are object choice and lighting. Sharon suggests photographing the landscape without the objects first. Sean and I also discussed boredom and how that might become an idea that I want to tap into with these photographs. He also encouraged me to take more because diary style art projects do well if they have a large amount of documentation. Quantity can contribute to the overall message.
- Application of fabrics, create new textures
Reuse fabrics and materials to apply together to create a multi layered textile. Hoping to explore non-fabric materials to weave together to make a unique pattern. Things to think about here: try to manipulate color and repetition so that the fabric doesn’t end up looking flat. More dimensional and more intentional via color location.
- Hug Garden: A safe place to hug
What is a hug? Why do we greet each other this way? What has changed now that we skip this traditional greeting. What is the script? The absence of a hug can now mean a deeper selfless love for one another. Aloof has become compassion. What is the history of a hug? Was it a way to see if our enemies carried weapons? What do we do when the weapons we carry are invisible? Germs of unintended malintent.
The idea here being a sculpture where people could actually hug each other through a plastic tarpaulin. Using found or reused items to create an interactive landscape. Final project might have sound to accompany it and would be documented with an interaction between two people using the “HUG” garden. I was also thinking it might be fun to hear people doing a sing a long layered on top of each other.
This is a large scale project that I think needs the most advice on. I’d really love to make this! I think it could be a very joyful project, but it is a large scale project. Would really love feedback on this one!
This is a test
MA 7/14: Hi Christina! I’m really interested in the concept of manifesting the hug into a physical/visual representation! The juxtaposition between color, texture, material and spacial relationships. Scale I think will play a huge part in the delivery of your message too, as well as the environment you place it in, and the form that the fabric itself will take. Garments are designed and sewn around the physical construct and environment of the human body– but now that these structures are placed in a totally different physical construct, it may have to adapt to its surrounding in a different way? I would recommend checking out some work from Christo and Jeanne Claude– especially, “The Gates” from NYC’s Central Park in 2005 (which we have discussed!) (https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/the-gates) and, “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped”(https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/arc-de-triomphe-wrapped) which is a work still in progress!
Hi Christina! I agree that the hug project could be joyful. My initial thoughts to the details are that hugging through plastic feels a little icky – like a body bag or shower curtain. Also plastic theoretically is the surface on which viral bacteria can live the longest. I do like the idea of hugging through something. Also, I thought about ways in which bodies could hug in other unconventional ways – back to back somehow – or giant sewn arms that one could wrap themselves into. Or maybe even just holding hands (and offering hand sanitizer afterwards).
Garments in Nature – consider how Andy Goldsworthy approaches nature…