Discussion 4: Sculpture and New Materials

In discussion 4 we looked at various artists such as Petah Coyne, Tara Donovan, and Tim Hawkinson. Petah Coyne creates environments using her 3 dimensional semi-organic forms. In one of her installations, what look like various chandeliers covered in wax hang just above the floor. The wax looks to be preserving the decaying looking chandeliers. Below is an example.

Tara Donovan also seems to create environments with her installation pieces. However she uses found materials such as styrofoam cups, straws, paper plates, and tape to create large biomorphic forms that occupy a determined space. Using styrofoam cups in one of her pieces, the result almost resembles fat cells under a microscope. See below.

Tim Hawkinson creates installations that work almost like a gigantic rube-goldberg machine and operate using mechanics and often use the element of sound. Hawkinson's Uberorgan is a stadium-sized bagpipe that plays for five minutes every hour on the hour. Hawkinson created the Uberorgan using bits of electronics and inflated plastic sheeting. Click here to see a video of it.

I haven't dabbled in 3d material much outside of my 3d Design class I took at FAU. I found that I had the most fun when I worked with found objects and tried to piece them together as I saw fit. An example of this would be when I decided to take apart an old television I found in our garage to see what would happen. I ended up going down to my dad's shop to use some of his tools in order to bend PVC pipe to stick inside of the now empty television shell. Here it is being modeled by my cat.

I'd eventually like to create another one of these where the pipes actually suspend the television shell off of the ground. Or perhaps one that goes from television to television shell in an elaborate path. Either way, I'd really like to revisit this at some point. I just need to get access to one of those hot boxes that let you bend PVC.

Recently I helped my brother create a sewing table for his girlfriend's birthday. It too both of our brainstorming and finding some reference material in how to easily put together something that would still be stable and serve its purpose. In the end after cutting and sanding, and much gluing, we had a perfectly functional table that would work for cutting fabric on.

We had some trouble when piecing together the legs, but in the end they came together nicely. We used a dowel rod about an inch long to secure the legs into place. Also wood glue. See below.

-Jason