Proposal
The main influence for this project is my own Scoliosis surgery so I decided that bones (specifically the spine and ribcage) would be the main focus of my piece. I also drew inspiration from the works of Leonardo Da Vinci as I am very inspired by the intricacy of his anatomical studies and that his subjects are similar to that of which I would like to incorporate within my final major illustration and sculpture.
Due to the quarantine, I am unable to conduct any trips or visits because of closures at this time. However I am influenced by previous trips and visits such as the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition and the Natural History Museum in which I was able to study fossilised bones from life. The sculptural works of George Segal have inspired me in particular as they are presented within an environment, in which I would like to further research within this project.
The title of my project is “Orthopaedic Cage”. I will work towards producing a large scale spine and ribcage sculpture using a wire armiture base, layers of mod-roc and a texured layer of acrylic paint within which an illustration will be held. I am planning to suspend the sculpture within a simple white toned environment to contrast the piece and draw the viewer’s eye, whilst creating a sense of balance between the sculptural and illustrative elements. I feel that I will incorporate a light source to create a sense of depth and dimension inspired by the works of George Segal, alongside creating a unique experience for the viewer within the final show. If possible I would like to surround my final major piece with other’s work of a similar subject and atmosphere to contextualise my piece alongside the other’s.
I intend to to use a wire armiture as a base for the spine and ribcage sculpture upon which I will layer newspaper and mod-roc and add texture using a dry brush technique with acrylic paint. For the illustration, I intend to use a monochrome scale including the use of fineliner alongside ink and incorporate marks such as hatching and cross-hatching inspired by the works of Leonardo Da Vinci to create a sense of contrast and dimension within the piece. I have debated between mounting the sculpture on a wall and suspending it from the centre of the studio, but overall I feel that I will use a corner wall for support and stability as the piece itself will be quite large. I have created a personalised time plan outlining areas of the project that I will work on daily, taking into account the limitations in place due to the quarantine.
During the creation of the spine sculpture, I felt that my prior planning of measurements and structural stability aided greatly in the successes of the piece as a whole as this gave me a solid armature base to apply the sculptural materials of newspaper and mod-roc. The research into George Segal's sculpting process also gave me insight into the techniques that I would need to use alongside the illustrative techniques of Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomy studies. A challenge that impacted my work was the way in which I would present the final major piece without the inclusion of the ribcage sculpture and the unavailability of my chosen environment. I debated whether to present the piece outdoors as I did not have a controllable light source to highlight the piece in the way which I had wanted, so to solve this, I had waited for day with clear weather and a strong source of light from the sun to rely on lighting the piece. This in itself was quite an inconvenience and did not give the results that I had thought so I feel that this was unsuccessful and could have been avoided through greater planning.
I feel that my final major piece is somewhat successful in terms of highlighting links to my chosen artists of George Segal and Leonardo Da Vinci as well as personal links to my spinal surgery through featuring bones as the subject. However, I also feel that the result of this piece is quite unsuccessful as the removal of ribcage sculpture reduces the scale and the impact that I wanted to captivate the viewer. However, I feel that the removal of the ribcage sculpture was necessary considering the change of compositional presentation. Due to the lockdown restrictions, I have altered the ways in which the final major piece was presented. As I have been unable to enter the studio, I have chosen wooden boards as the environment to suspend the sculpture from as I felt the aged textures of the boards created an antique mood which relates to the fossilised bones that I have studied. If I were to create this piece again, I would incorporate the ribcage sculpture into the piece as first planned and I would accomplish this by re-evaluating my plans for presenting the piece in an improvised environment whilst re-scaling the other elements around this factor. I feel that the biggest challenge I faced within the project was the uncertainty surrounding the lockdown especially within the first months of the project, to solve this I created multiple plans in case of an inability to return to the studio. To an extent this was successful, however I feel as if I should have adapted to this quicker and prepared more experiments for the practical elements of my final major project.
Comparison of planned and actual time plans:
Bibliography:
-http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/da_vinci_leonardo.shtml
-https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/leonardo-da-vinci
-https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/blog/posts/last-chance-to-see-leonardo-da-vinci-drawings-in-birmingham
-https://www.theartstory.org/artist/segal-george/
-https://www.segalfoundation.org/about_bio.html
-http://www.locksgallery.com/artists/george-segal
-Personal X-ray scans obtained from The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham
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