"Eternity of Memory"
Medium: Clay and Found Object
Size: 8 cm x 28 cm
Date: April 2016
Inspired by Greek Sculpture, this piece is meant to portray the message of indestructible memories. It is meant to demonstrate how the human body ages and deteriorates over time, meanwhile our memories remain preserved in our minds. Perhaps our memories may become old and break up into pieces yet they remain with us until the end thus demonstrating how they are sacred to one. It is meant to provoke one into thinking how many memories they've made over their aging years.
Medium: Clay and Found Object
Size: 8 cm x 28 cm
Date: April 2016
Inspired by Greek Sculpture, this piece is meant to portray the message of indestructible memories. It is meant to demonstrate how the human body ages and deteriorates over time, meanwhile our memories remain preserved in our minds. Perhaps our memories may become old and break up into pieces yet they remain with us until the end thus demonstrating how they are sacred to one. It is meant to provoke one into thinking how many memories they've made over their aging years.
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Planning
Having only been given the theme "Sacred Vessel," I had no idea as what to create. I began brainstorming about what I thought about when I heard the word sacred and immediately religion popped into my mind. However, I thought religion was too cliché, I wanted to create a piece that was more than just what people immediately thought when they heard the word sacred. Once I thought about the idea more, I assimilated the word vessel with the human body thinking that we're just an intangible being trapped in a corroding body. Immediately I began sketching pieces in which this idea of a useless body came into play as we are more than that and eventually I stumbled upon the idea that as our bodies waste away our minds don't. They may age and but the remain with us until the very end and even perhaps after wards. Our memories are what make us who we are and they're simply trapped in the vessel that is out body. This led me to the idea that whenever I think about the human mind and ideas I usually assimilate it with a light bulb. Furthermore a memory, in my perspective, if tangible would be like a message in a bottle. This slowly led me to develop my piece. |
Artistic Inspiration
I was inspired by Greek Sculpture. Greek sculptures usually have missing limbs, are aged and degrading, and portray an emotionless face. This led me to in a way create a similar piece in which I created a body with missing parts in order to demonstrate corrosion and the idea of eroding overtime. Additionally, Greek sculptures were usually associated with being sacred as they usually depicted a God or Goddess which was perfect for my piece in demonstrating that the body was nothing compared to the spiritual aspect of each person, that we're much more than just our bodies. Venus de Milo (Left) Research and Image Citation: http://www.venusdemilo.gr/ |
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Process
Once I knew what I was going to do for my project, I began by using the pug mill and creating a fresh batch of clay. I then proceeded to knead the clay to get rid of air bubbles within the clay. Once I had a block of clay that had been kneaded, I began by creating the base of the head of my sculpture. I did this by flattening out a lump of clay into a flat disc. This became my base from which I began to build from. The next step I took was to create the neck for my sculpture. Therefore I took a cylindrical piece of clay and placed it onto my base by slipping and scoring both pieces and then putting them together. Once both pieces were stable, I added on the head by creating an elongated spherical lump of clay. Once again I combined the pieces by slipping and scoring the two. Once I had the basic shapes of a head, I used clay tools to add details such as making the neck less cylindrical adding in troughs and crests to represent veins in the neck. Further more, I began to carve out facial features such as a nose. After the nose had been centered and finished, I began to engrave smaller details such as the eyes and mouth and then began to incorporate wrinkles to represent deterioration and aging. When the details of my sculpture were done, I hollowed out the piece in order to make it less dense. Once hollow, I decided where I wanted to place the light bulb shaped vial in the head. Using a clay tool, I created a hole where it would go and then I fired my piece. As for my light bulb vial, I began to create the message that would go inside. I took a piece of paper, crumpled it up, un-crumpled it, and then burned parts of it to represent aging and time once more. When I had the look I desired, I placed the paper in the vial. When my sculpture was done firing, I glazed my piece with a reddish brown color, one that seemed worthless in terms of almost looking like a deteriorated penny. Then I fired my piece once more and then attached my glass vial onto the piece by placing it in the hole and hot gluing it into place. |