3D to 2D

Poetry Response

For this assignment, I created two small sculptures using only paper, ink and thread. These sculptures were created in response to the poem Gatsby, Again by Laney Burrell.

For my first solution, I wanted to evoke the sense of emptiness that was present in the poem. I also took inspiration from Art Deco architecture, which has geometric lines and shapes. The "green light turning red" mentioned within the poem is represented by the cylindrical form hanging from the lid of the box. The cylinder was created by coating strips of Rives paper with gel medium and wrapping the strips around a wooden dowel. 

My second solution was inspired by the Hollywood sign and hills mentioned in the poem. I cut vaguely letter-like shapes using an exacto knife and strung them together using contrasting thread.

Memento

The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale.

This is a photo of Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Park, located in Anaheim, California. In photos, the castle looks grand and awe-inspiring. However, in person, the castle is quite small, especially compared to Walt Disney World's Cinderella Castle. You can't properly judge the scale of an object unless you see it in person.

The capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience.

Objects have the ability to trigger memories of the past. For me, this stuffed animal brings back memories of the end of my senior year of high school.

The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the 3D into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body. 

This small charm is representative of a nearly 1000ft structure.

Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss.

This ornament was given to me by my late grandfather, and it serves as a reminder of him and the memories we shared together. 

To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy

This shrunken head is representative of a culture that is very different from that of contemporary Western culture , and acts as a specimen from said culture. The shrunken heads were used as victory trophies by the Jivaro tribe of Ecuador.

Soap Changes

"Jessica"- Hippo soap carving, pre-changes

I began by removing the front limbs of my hippo, which was not difficult since they had already begun to fall off (Subtractive)

I then placed the limbs, in addition to leftover soap shavings from the original carving, into a mason jar and liquified it using boiling water. I had originally attempted to melt the soap via a double-boiler setup, but it turns out that my particular soap does not melt very easily. (Additive and Subtractive)

After liquifying the soap, I poured the soap into two smaller containers and dyed the soap purple and pink using ink (Additive)

I then proceeded to carefully pour the soap onto a sheet of wax paper, marbling the two colors together using a toothpick (Additive)

While the soap was hardening, I returned to my hippo figure and decapitated it using a utility knife. The head broke into multiple pieces while I was cutting (Subtractive)

I then used a loop tool to shave down one of the sides of the torso (Subtractive).

Next, I inserted toothpicks into the sculpture (Additive)

I then burned the toothpicks down, hoping to char the soap. However, the flame extinguished itself once it hit the soap (Subtractive)

Next, I broke the torso into uneven pieces using a utility knife (Subtractive)

                        I then peeled the hardened soap from the wax paper and trimmed off some of the edges (Subtractive). In order to create an adhesive for the soap, I melted down some beeswax pellets.

    I covered up the beeswax with gold acrylic paint and attached the sculpture to a base that I created using balsa wood and acrylic paint.

The final result reminded me of something that might belong on a distant planet. It no longer resembles the soap hippo it was crafted from.

Final Result