Ex-hibit.

A previous module recently asked us to write an essay thinking and planning out the best way to exhibit our work to the public in a gallery environment. With my work often having deeper hidden meanings, mixed with humour yet occasionally a darker vibe it was difficult to see a standard gallery exhibit portraying the personality of my work effectively. Heavily inspired by Bristol's graffiti artist Banksy and in particular his exhibit Banksy vs Bristol museum. In this exhibit he used the concept of an art workshop being the exhibit, also a concept used by artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Francis Bacon and Henry Moore.
Using this concept would be a brilliant way for the public to grab a glimpse into what goes into my work, how its formed, the research, the thought process and most importantly the personality that goes into each piece.

Banksy's exhibit:

 Barbara Hepworth exhibit:

 Francis Bacon exhibit:

 Henry Moore exhibit:

 

Said module also asked us to create the exhibit we had planned, here are several picture of my ex-exhibit...

 

 

 

The exhibit was a great representation of my work and personality, everyone who I invited to see my exhibit enjoyed it and applauded my efforts. In my final exhibit at The Public gallery in West Bromwich on the 12th of October, I hope to try and use the same concept to build an equally good exhibit.

Venom

Synthetic testosterone, otherwise known as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). AAS has been around since the 1930's, but since the 1970s body building has become big business thanks to Schwarzenegger's huge impact on the movie industry. This impact has brought us into a resurgence of gym memberships and a generation of lads looking for physical superiority.

 

This gym resurgence has of course seen a boost in the use of steroids. All to often I speak to people who have used, or are using steroids and have done little to no research about the drug.
Testosterone is a hormone which plays a key role in men's development of muscle mass, bone mass, aggression and sexual libido. AAS means that men can inject themselves with up to 50 times more testosterone a week. These incredibly high levels not only build muscles but create a huge surge of aggression and ironically kills sex drive. This aggression is commonly known as roid rage amongst people in the know.

 

I wanted to encapsulate the dangers of steroids and the severity of the drug, through a sculpture. Having recently looked at super heroes they were still fresh in my mind and so were super villains. One in particular stood out as the perfect representative to portray my message. Spiderman's evil counter-part Venom.

Venom is an evil black viscous oil which is able to surround bodies making them ultra aggressive and extremely strong and muscular. In the spiderman comic Venom is an extra terrestrial entity but as I see it has many of the same characteristics of anabolic steroids. A viscous oil that entraps people making them bigger, stronger and more aggressive.

 

 

My sketch's of venom...

Once I had decided upon making this bottom picture a 4D form I set about making.

 

 The model started off life as a really rough shape made out of scrunched up newspaper held together by masking tape.

The next stage was to cover the newspaper in clay and form a rough idea of the head and where the facial features would go.

After the initial stage of creating a base the long process of detailing. the toughest challenge was making the face convincingly look as though it was being suffocated against its will.

 

 

 

 

 This is the finished Venom bust. possibly one of my most rewarding pieces as I was unsure about whether I would be able to do the original idea justice. I decided to leave the syringe off the piece as the tongue being so fragile would be asking for a breakage.

Going out in a glaze of glory.

This week I have been preparing glazes to finish off some previous sculptures. Earlier in the year I made some Gorilla sculptures and busts of popular film characters which due to time constraints I was unable to get finished. Here are the pictures of said models.

This piece is called 'Hold on to wisdom' ad represents the importance of learning from your mistakes.

Hollow inside was a Gorilla showing he was empty on the inside, this was a reflection of how low and depressed people can feel when heartbroken.

 

The Grinch, this bust is pretty self explanatory, but was constructed in an attempt to challenge myself having never made a bust before.

Having succeeded in my first bust I followed up with a powerful Hulk bust, I live the idea of good vs evil and the ideas of super heros and villains. This is the reason for super heros regularly featuring in my sketch books and works.

 

 

 

These are the glazed pieces waiting to be fired...

 

 

The for all the colour glazes I used a base glaze and then added different under glazes glazes to the mix. The matt black glaze was a completely separate concoction. Here are the recipes...

 

Base Glaze:

Lead bisilicate          40

whiting                     15

high alkaline frit       10

china clay                   5

flint                            15

 

To achieve the colours I added these ingredients to the base glaze:

 

Green:

Titanium dioxide      5

green under glaze     7

 

White:

Titanium dioxide      10

 

Red:

Titanium dioxide      5

red under glaze       10



 

 

Matt black:

 

red clay                   30

potash feldspar       15

manganese oxide    50

copper oxide             2

lead bisilicate            3

 

All glazes are to be fired to 1100 degrees.

 

Here are the results of the glaze firing:

Unfortunately this piece has cracked in the kiln, its a real shame as its one of my favourites

This Gorilla has come out looking great I'm really pleased with the white and black contrast with the glazes for the body and the eyes.

 

I'm extremely happy with how Mr Grinch has turned out, the green glaze has been much darker than I expected but it has resulted in making him look far malevolent. This is great as I pride my work on being a lot darker than the norm.

Again the green glaze has proved darker than expected but has left the clay with a brilliant finish that almost looks like a metal surface.

All in all I am pleased with the result of the firing with one mishap of the cracked gorilla all has gone according to plan.

 

As an alternative to glaze many artists who make similar kinds of sculptures for example Ant Watkins, Boularis or Chris Calver rope in professional painters to complete their work. This in mind I attempted to paint one of my pieces using acrylic paints.

 

 After painting...

 

The bold colours of the paint look great but this was just a simple paint job, hiring a pro would defininlty enhance my more complex models.