In "The Human Experience" I use sculpture to portray strong emotions and unwanted tendencies the brain creates. My goal is to make pieces that evoke certain feelings from the viewer that make them relate to the aspects of humanity I'm portraying. During the year the size and details in my sculptures have been my main eye catcher as I’ve been working on building them as big as possible. I’ve faced many challenges with this and have proven to myself that bigger is not always better; it’s fun to learn but not as fun to glue it back together. Part of the reasoning for the size ties back into the disturbing theme. It’s easier to relate to something that can make eye contact with you or has the same sized hand that's reaching out to you. I knew at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t be happy with them unless they fit an impossible criteria. I believe the challenge to achieve that is part of the human experience.
#1
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My second sustained investigation is called the human experience to focus and expand on my last one and explore more situations caused by how the brain works. This first piece is meant to show self sacrifice and trying to show that in a visual representation of the mindset of people-pleasing. The brain is edible so it can become an interactive piece where the viewer can physically take something from it. Providing the spoon is supposed to show the self sacrifice of making it easier for the viewer to use the figure without realizing its part of the meaning. The whole sculpture turned out well and I'm glad I've grown to a skill level where I'm able to create a face and be in control of the features and make it as disturbing as it turned out.
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#2
I went through a couple trial and error projects with this piece. I wanted to make something big and closer to my preliminary sketches but I had a hard time getting it to dry out fast enough where I could start adding other parts to the main bodies and removing supports to get to them. My idea ended up collapsing twice before I decided to go with something smaller because of my time limit. While I loved the concept originally, execution of my idea didn’t work out how I wanted so I’m not completely satisfied with this piece.
Connections is based on asking for help and feeling unworthy of it. The imagery of being torn apart and missing something but not being able to take it from someone else. There’s reluctance to accept help for fear of being refused or looked down upon. I think this can be applied to any relationship and the needed trust that comes with it.
Connections is based on asking for help and feeling unworthy of it. The imagery of being torn apart and missing something but not being able to take it from someone else. There’s reluctance to accept help for fear of being refused or looked down upon. I think this can be applied to any relationship and the needed trust that comes with it.
#3
This was my first large piece of the year and like many of mine, there were some complications. A technique I used ended up trapping some air in between some layers. This led to part of the bottom coming off. I used glue and plaster to repair it.
This large bowl is meant to display feelings of saddness and being held down into one place. Oftentimes, depression is symbolized by drowning and I wanted to display that symbol in some way so the theme can be easily identified and related to. |
#4
This piece was made to display hunger in all its forms. Hunger for food, connections, knowledge and anything you can think of. I think hunger is very human and part of everyone’s identities. There are things we crave like success or validation. In this sculpture I wanted to show a more animalistic form of that emotion which led to the disgusting imagery used in the final product. I was experimenting with airdryclay with foil as a base. I didn’t really like this way of making things because I didn’t use very good clay so there were a lot of cracks that needed to be filled in. I do really like the design with the pink gums and gross teeth. This piece ended up being a lot of my classmates favorite so I think I can live with the learning mistakes I made.
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#5
In this piece I tried something I hadn’t ever done before and it turned out exactly how I wanted to. The chain was something I had always wanted to try making and I think I did a pretty good job. I found that in this process of stepping out of my comfort zone, I was actively defying the side of humanity I wanted to portray. This sculpture represented being stuck in a prison made for yourself or by others and not wanting to step out of it. There are certain things everyone dislikes about themselves or wishes they could change and this piece shows that need for that break. I find the hardest thing to escape from is the way others perceive me. I can change as much as I want but I might still find myself trapped in a box created by others. There’s a lot of human instinct that forces people to stay in their boxes and never try to change and it's very hard to break that mindset.
#6
The Escape represents trying to get away from your own mind. The idea came from my sustained investigation last year where I focused on the visualization of intrusive thoughts. Since these thoughts are part of being human, I still wanted to make a piece that belonged in this investigation and showed that darker aspect of the brain. I really liked how this piece turned out because of the way I sculpted the skin to look like it's stretching and there's pressure coming from underneath.
#7
This piece was a tiring learning experience. Working on really big pieces while also rushing to finish them and get them in the kiln was my biggest stressor this year. The problems with this one started when I got to the point I thought I should be hollowing it out. I cut sections off the top so the weight was more on the bottom and light in the shoulders and head. This didn’t really work because it wasn’t dry enough to take out the supports. I tried putting supports under the weak points to help it stay stable while it dried more but it was already too late. The reason I find it so hard to sculpt the human body is because of the proportions that can only be supported by a skeleton and muscles. Creating natural posture is something I definitely need to work on while still being able to support heavy parts. The meaning behind the sculpture was based on human dependance on luck. Opening tons of fortune cookies until you find the future you like for yourself. Usually I would seal up and hide the cracks formed during the firing but I thought this one having very noticeable openings represents the price paid to wait for good luck to come your way.
#8
This piece represents paranoia portrayed through the imagery of being watched. I thought it was fitting to put as many eyes into a fairly simple loooking piece to show how the brain can make up disturbing ideas on its own to fill in gaps. This was another sculpture that didn’t really work out how I originally plannned because of enginearing problems and different stages of drying.
#9
The rat sculpture comes from the idea of how hygene and appearance is treated in our society. I find that a lot of conversation topics rotate around to how someone looks or what they put on their body. The fact is that depending on who is talking, this person could look really cool or look lazy. It's interesting to me how interpretation of physical aspects determine character. I chose a rat to represent this because I think they're adorable, but there are many people I talk to that hate rats and think they're disgusting. A rat could be the nicest creature in the world but as long as it looks like a rat, the narative is going to change who that rat is in others minds. Obviously my sculpture is not pleasant to look at due to the nature of the design. We as humans cling to what makes us comfortable so anything that makes us uncomfortable is inherently bad when looking without context.
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#10
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This piece was based on confrontation of mortality as part of the human experience. I think that death is something that has a different meaning to everyone and also something difficult to confront. There are many interpretations of death in art and media and I thought it was a good idea to create somthing based on it because it ties into my theme really well.
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#11
The star girl is my tallest piece yet, her head had to be attached after firing because it wouldn’t have fit in the kiln otherwise. I love this sculpture and the combination of ceramics and metalwork I included. She is based on human insecurity with bodies and other subjects. I took inspiration from the star pimple patches that have been gaining popularity recently and how in any situation it's possible to turn an insecurity into something pretty.
#12-
Lately I’ve been fixated on drawing and collaging birds with human faces or people with animal heads. I don’t really know where these ideas came from but I knew I wanted to turn it into a sculpture. Some of my pieces get made first and get their meaning second, this was one of them. After some thinking I decided to tie it into human dependence on the destruction of nature and natures dependence on humans. Partly based on the domestications of pigeons in New York, there's a cycle of destruction where natural environments are being destroyed and those wild animals have to depend on help from the people who took away that home in the first place.
#13- Holding Faith
This sculpture made me want to give up. There were some problems in the kiln and some pieces of the bottom were not recovered makeing it loose a couple inches. The hand, part of the hair and cheek, are a combination of air dry clay and plaster which was challeging to make look decent as the plaster hardens much faster than expected. The repair time ended up taking longer than the building of the sculpture originally and I was surprised to salvage it.
This piece is based off religion as it is a very important aspect life to a lot of people. It gives people hope or reasons to do things and somthing to believe in that is bigger than themselves. I am not a religous person but I could not ignore it as a symbol of humanity. The themes I used were intentionally dark and a little gross because I have had experiences where people use their religion to excuse hate to others. I wanted to show how people will hold onto things that are familiar.
This piece is based off religion as it is a very important aspect life to a lot of people. It gives people hope or reasons to do things and somthing to believe in that is bigger than themselves. I am not a religous person but I could not ignore it as a symbol of humanity. The themes I used were intentionally dark and a little gross because I have had experiences where people use their religion to excuse hate to others. I wanted to show how people will hold onto things that are familiar.
# 14 - Burnt out
Burnt Out displays the feeling of exhaustion that comes with age and constant expectations. By the end of the year this piece seemed very fitting for my situation of not knowing what to create after having so many failure but forcing myself to press on anyways. A small and simple but cool looking finisher seemed like the right way to go. I find myself with feelings of burnout all the time like many others. It weighs you down and makes you feel like you can't accomplish somthing greater than what you already have. Much like a burning candle can't grow taller. This may be my smallest piece but what it lacks in size, it makes up for with the performance element I added to make it look like a candle burning out. It is meant to be displayed with the video of the match burning behind it on loop.
View my 5 quality pieces here