Muted Mouth
Week 2 - Body
This week was about responding to the use of "Body" in work, referring to both the body of the work and the physical human body, and how it connects us to the work. I found it quite interesting how, all of a sudden, once there is a human body, or human smells or textures, the work takes on this level of discomfort. With sculptures representing humans in their natural life in a zoned-out state, or even naked bodies lying on the floor, to a mix of unnatural human figures. Why does it feel uncomfortable? Is it the idea of looking at a person who has no life or soul, or is it simply the idea of looking at something that is inherently "us"?
The Class's Body
Our goal by the end of the class was to come together with our own responses to the task and form a collective body. I found it interesting that I was the only one who created a whole mouth, yet there were many teeth.
I find this creature quite beautiful in how it displays our individuality; you can tell each work was created by its respective artist's body, with different styles, mediums, and creative endeavors. Our unique creative identity forms the whole; it's fragmented and blocky, but entirely unique. Looking at this combination of uniqueness really allows us to embrace our individuality, even as we fit together. This piece reminds us to celebrate ourselves. As such, I think a nice title for this piece would be "US".
Patricia Piccinini - 'The Young Family' - 2002
When presented with the concept of the body, 'The Young Family' by Patricia Piccinini (2002) immediately comes to mind. Though these pig-like humanoid forms don't inherently look human, they do share our skin tones and facial shapes. This morphing of the body creates an unsettling feeling within the viewer, meant to provoke thoughts on genetic modification. What really connects me to this piece is still the level of comfort we as an audience feel with this mother; her care and nurture are empathetic, and we can feel that, yet we are still uncomfortable with what we are visually seeing.
Santissimi - 'MOM' - 2016
The Italian sculpture duo Santissimi: Sara Renzetti and Antonello Serra uses the body as a statement of understanding, showcasing it in a mix of complex forms that examine humanity and use its elements to create new amalgamations. Their 2016 sculpture 'MOM' displays a blob of skin held up by rope. This lump of skin, tied with its title, gives it a womb-like quality that makes the audience question its idea of 'our creator'. What makes this so motherly? Is this where we come from? It's hyper naturalistic skin makes this gravitationally welcoming yet also horrific in the same sense. Though its only inherent human quality is the skin, this work has changed the way I perceive the body in 3D sculpture and how it can be transformed into whatever shapes or forms we desire, yet this sense of "what is 'human'?" continues to give us this unease.
CREATIVE PROCESS
For this week's task, we had to work with wood. Straight away, I was reminded of a sketch I had drawn in the past, the Eye in the Mouth. With wood, I thought it would connect quite well, as nature is always watching and something that we constantly feed with chemicals and water. Yet it never speaks up. It can't; it doesn't have a mouth or eyes, yet there is still this feeling that it can see us and that we "feed" it, while it literally feeds us.
As such, I really wanted to utilise the natural grain of the wood to almost become the iris, rather than creating something artificial to match what our biological iris looks like.
As I was carving into the plywood, it didn't carve very well. As it is wood layered on top of each other, it becomes easy for the wood to chip away.
As always, I try not to fight the material to get it to do what I want it to, but rather go along with it and work with it as a form of collaboration between the material itself and my artistry.
As such, my initial concept changes; it becomes less about the eye and more about the mouth, destroyed and decayed. The grain running through the middle felt more like an empty depth of space, rather than an observational lens, but an open void into the mouth.
Though the grain assisted with adding colour to the mouth, I really wanted to make it pop and highlight the teeth to make it appear as more of a mouth. As such, I applied a wood polish/lacquer over the top, sanded it back, then applied a new layer without painting the teeth to almost make them appear white. This really makes them stand out from the rest of the mouth. Though the bottom 'teeth' are not lighter, I like how the grain makes it look like it's decaying/rotten. Whilst inherently creating a contrast and adding dimension.