23 February 2010

Core studies week 8

The search for clear (acrylic) boxes for my final "sculpture" - or is it an installation? - is proving that they are (a) too small and (b) too expensive. So I was glad to see this sheet of translucent plastic with a corrugated core in a bin - it might prove useful. Took it to class to see what to do with it next -Other translucent materials were to hand - tracing paper of various sizes and weights. I made a couple of large cubes from some crumpled paper that someone had thrown away, and others with fresh, smooth paper -- the crumpled stuff was much more sturdy. But oh so noisy to work with!

The smaller size tracing paper is sturdy enough for its size. To make the open-ended cubes, fold the sides of the paper in to the middle; fold the strip almost in half; open up and fold the short end back to the fold across the strip, then roll the strip up, creasing as you go. The strip will have 5 sides, with the final one shorter than the others - tuck it into the other end, and a cube is formed.
They can be used on their sides or on end -
The rolls of paper will be replaced by "rickety steps" - but what size will the piece be? Is this a maquette or the full-sized piece, with tiny steps, or will the steps I've already made be a suitable size to go with the larger cubes?
Will it be a scree slope of cubes, confined at the end of "tunnel" -- or will it be a small mountain, that people can walk around?

Another consideration is lighting - using a little LED light makes it glow like the blue ice in a glacier -
On my to-do list today was to figure out how the doorways and thresholds have morphed into this form. The emphasis is now definitely on the in-between, away from the inside and outside. We'll be writing a "supporting statement" for the final piece, to reflect these kinds of changes.

1 comment:

Sue Krekorian said...

You're probably way past that now, but we were in Muji not long ago, and they had lots of perspex storage pieces at very reasonable prices - maybe not the right sizes for what you want and indeed maybe not so affordable for the quantities you need but maybe worth checking. What a very interesting conceptual leap you've made.