In the blink of an eye I’m in semester two of year two and it’s full steam ahead. This semester is a little different, firstly I’m working on my personal development plan, centred around what I’ll be doing when my degree ends, who can really think that far ahead? Also, I’m working on a really exciting project which is to create a piece of work for The Henry Moore Foundation in Hertfordshire.
The Foundation, in Perry Green was the site of Henry Moore’s home and studios, it is now dedicated to promoting Moore’s work and legacy. Year 2 BA Fine Art students together with Fashion & Textile students have been invited to respond to Moore’s work and exhibit work in May of this year.
My intention is to create a piece of work all about families, in particular my family. Working from family photographs and memories I am planning to translate these into an installation of boxes and maybe found objects that the audience can move and engage with.
I am still at the research and testing materials stage, below you can see a couple of boxes that I have made. These boxes enable me to see what materials I will use and the process that needs to be followed to make sturdy boxes out of my chosen material, cardboard.
Lately I have spent a lot of time collecting and transporting cardboard boxes. Here is a pic from my studio yesterday, I have found that computer boxes are very strong and stable and are my box of choice. It is going to be a lot of work just getting these boxes prepped before I can add any images to them. I am excited for this project but also a bit in trepidation of the amount of work involved.
One of Henry Moore’s key themes was family groups and this is why I have chosen to focus on this in my work, I am going to do this by creating my version of an Exquisite Corpse. The Exquisite Corpse was a game where each person takes a turn writing or drawing on paper, folding it to conceal from the next person. The game was popular in the 1920s and adopted by the Surrealist movement to generate collaborative compositions.
Moore was interested in the idea of breaking the figure up into multiple parts and allowing the audience to put it back together again visually by walking around it and connecting the pieces in their mind. With my sculpture the audience can compose and re-compose the work by moving the boxes as they wish.
The exhibition will run from 10th to 14th of May with a talk by the exhibiting artists on Friday 12th May.
What do you think of my ideas? I’d love to know, please get in touch and share your thoughts.
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