Thursday, January 01, 2009

This semester I presented to myself some significant challenges. While still very much in love with the printed image, I found myself looking for new ways to present it. I decided to replace paper which is the typical support medium with glass. When doing so one has to ask why? What are the advantages of the new support medium verses the old? Glass has the qualities of illumination, molding, slumping, and breaking. This print (they're both the same) originally came off an intaglio plate onto a transfer paper which was then used to transfer the ink onto the glass. In this case a sheet of white glass was printed on and a sheet of clear glass placed over the top and fused. The print in the black shadow box was dropped to break it, and then reassembled in a broken manner with the various pieces at different height levels. The print is about Apartheid in South Africa and it's effect on those it brutally repressed. The broken piece symbolizes on Apartheid shattered the lives on those people.

I'm also experimenting with slumping the glass prints into plaster/silica molds, but haven't gotten things to a point that I am satisfied. Stay tuned!
This semester's techniques included new ones such as fabrication as well as the delightful castings. These two pieces illustrate both techniques. They are both related to spirituality and were intended to go together. The casting with its flat space in the middle was to hold the fabricated piece. However, they just don't work well that close together. As the suggestion of Cambid Choy, UWL's sculpture professor, next semester one of the projects will be an extention piece that holds the fabricated piece at eye level while attaching to the base on the floor. Stay tuned!

Sorry for the poor pics. You would think a photo minor could do better!