Introducing Theory

Introducing Theory

Over the past couple of months, I have been experimenting with various things such as stability of materials and stability its self, however it became quite clear once my ideas began to run out that without theory to work from as a source of inspiration, it was going to be extremely difficult to continue working to create worthwhile pieces. 

To find an area of interest to work from that I could bring theory from, I started brainstorming what my interests were outside of art.

My interests were as follows:

• Clouds/ Sunsets and sunrise (The ever changing nature of): I am rather fascinated by both sunrises and sunsets, but am more interested in clouds and how they are ever-changing and never the same. I like to watch how sunlight filters through or doesn't filter through, and how the shape and colour of a cloud can tell much about the cloud itself. Sunsets and sunrises are always the same, but because of the weather or how the clouds have formed in the sky, they never look the same.

• Slums (The architecture, culture of, and community between residents): The reason slums fascinate me is because of how they spring up and expand and follow the shape of the land. They residents use materials that they find in order to build shelters and homes, and what was once a temporary home can become a permanent residence. Slums, despite first appearances, have a healthy and individual eco-system, and have their own neighbourhoods and communities. More over, the community between the people living in 'squalor' is much more wealthy that the community that resident in urban environments share. I feel there is much to learn from those who have nothing but still live happily. 

• Drag (The exaggeration and community): Drag is something that influences everyday life without people really knowing it. It is an art form that is heavily looked down upon because of the stigma surrounding drag and homosexuality. Within drag there are numerous different categories that each have their different rules, and each city has their own drag 'family'. It is a time consuming art form that I respect. The exaggeration and transformations are what I really enjoy; A drag queen or king can use cosmetic that people use in everyday life to create a mask that looks hyper-feminine or hyper-masculine. I personally prefer drag Queens for the amount of effort and pain they choose to go through in order to create this second persona.

• Reading (Particularly the fantasy genre wherein a whole new world is created but still relates to reality through the uses of religion, monarchy, and hierarchy): I love that no matter how different the world, and no matter what inhabits said world, the creator will always put into place a hierarchy reliant on monarchies and religion to keep the world intact and running. It is said the a hierarchy and religion is all that is needed to uphold a community, and yet it is also what can break one down.

From my brainstorming, I was able to pick out multiple different aspects of each point (not including my interest in clouds/sunsets/sunrises) that reappears in each; that would be community and rules.
Relating this to my FMP, I thought about creating a, interactive piece that would bring people together, however the issue still remains that people can still interact with the piece alone. Instead, I decided to experiment with creating my own rules that would restrict how I worked, but would also make me think outside of the box.
At first, the rules didn't help as I didn't know where to start after hastily setting myself some set rules to work by. Once I realised that working by set rules wasn't going to work, I decided instead to experiment with setting new rules each time I started a new piece. My first rules were must be symmetrical, only one batch of plaster can be used, and must include one primary and one secondary colour, however these rules, rather than allowing me to form ideas, completely stumped me.

Of course, if I could link other parts of my contextual work into my FMP, that would give me even more ideas. Out of all of the ideas that I had noted down whilst brainstorming, I was most interested in the Slums. 

Since I use a lot of found objects within my work, I thought that I could start to bring in reference materials from slums to begin to construct things or to come up with ideas.
My first idea was to simply reconstruct a model of the Mumbai super slum Dharavi, using both found and manufactured objects. The city of Mumbai would be portrayed using materials such as bricks and plaster blocks, while the slum surrounding it would be unorganised and made up of found drink bottles, cans, and plastic cups. I thought about slowly collecting bottles and the likes over time and eventually creating an extensive 'city' that would spread out across the exhibition floor, however the more I looked at it, I decided I wasn't satisfied, and there also wasn't any development work that led up to the idea, which would have made no sense. 

I decided after this that my first rule to experiment by would be Build Up, which meant that rather than creating something that would sprawl across the exhibition floor, would instead be built up towards the ceiling. At this point, I was still hung up on my former idea of experimenting with stability, so I thought about creating something that would effectively climb up a wall and would rely on the balance of the objects used to stay upright, however, after some testing with matches, I realised that it would be impractical.

 

It would be incredibly difficult to build up on top of a structure that wasn't held down nor held together, as when constructing it, it could collapse. 

I also tried building with jenga blocks, which in comparison are much more stable that matches, however the structures I was able to create with these blocks were nothing more than basic.

I thougth about recreating a slum house that I had seen an image of, but it just didn't feel right. I liked that the blocks were all at different levels and were unstable, but it looked too put together.

What I like the most about slums in general is how people live in the small amount of space allotted to them. 

T most, the places look extremely ugly, and to the residents of the cities that the slums are in, they are more commonly seen as an eyesore than a place that hides a wealth of things we could learn from. It is the ugliness that I really like- I love how the buildings are crooked and towered on top of other buildings, and how they loom over narrow alleys and roads.

Slums are an excellent example of how something is build up and out with limited space and resources, which is exactly what I aim to show within my work limited only to the objects I can find or create.