Bananas and custard

Although I had a vague idea of what the nets would eventually form, they fewer more complex ones were slightly harder to envision. However this wasn’t a handicap for me, it just made it all the more exciting, not knowing what was to come out of the page.

Of the one’s I had chosen I decided that the more angular nets reflected a better aesthetic. Rounder shapes such as cones seemed too naïve, un-thoughtful in comparison to angles of say, a rhomboid, which beyond a shape became a piece of architecture in itself, and multi faceted. I like the thought of being able to turn a shape around, seeing further sides, there being a multitude of options.
Furthermore after discussing amongst my friends / class mates / tutors, it seemed beneficial to my work to approach this one idea of 3d shapes and nets on it’s own. Any other concepts [more specifically my vision of making string pictures] would over complicate the work.  I need[ed] to get lost in one idea. Push it to the maximum and other ideas would merely distract from that, I wouldn’t be able to meet the full potential of them all. Hopefully this way I can make the best out of one idea.

From this conclusion, rather than wasting any more time, I then went on to experimenting with the chosen shapes.

Half way through using PVA glue I realised it really wasn’t the greatest way of sticking the nets together. I was waiting like 10 minutes for each couple of sides to dry and it was making the paper soggy. I thought about Prit-Stick but that just isn’t sticky enough, and then I had a brainwave [if that’s what you can call it when it’s been in-front of your face for 5hours before you notice] ... double sided sticky tape. A bit ‘Blue Peter’ and unglamorous but pretty damn good.
At a later point I may try using a glue gun for stubborn materials and there will be more consideration into how the conection of the net will look from the outside [I will probably add stitch] but for now that wasn’t what I needed to do. I just wanted to make the shapes and become familiar with them.

SO

6 Nets…….. and here they are

As can be seen, these are basic nets but they aren’t made of just plain paper.

I thought about doing that, but it just felt silly, like I was making them for the sake of it, and making more one work for myself so I killed 2 birds with one stone and did a bit of experimentation. Simple papers were used as to not take away from this initial approach to shape, however I wanted to integrate some kind of process with the paper.
Paint seemed a little too….. mundane, had I known a way to use it wel perhaps it wouldn’t have been however it doesn’t excite me enough so I used other materials as a means of painting. Reflecting back to my old work these all act as ways of making something ‘ugly’. The meat juices gave me the opportunity to consider new ways in which I could involve the meat again in my project without feeling cliché, repetitive, unoriginal and unthoughtful.

I like being the way I have this time used meat as a both a material rather than as a subject, it becomes secondary in it’s importance as the emphasis is on the shape and proves it’s versatile quality.
I used two types of meat here, I tried 4 overall, chicken, pork, beef and lamb.
The first two didn’t produce enough colouring for my liking hence why I worked further with the latter two.
The beef was only located on a certain area of the paper whereas the lamb takes over a bigger area. As much as I prefer the darkness of the lamb, it’s a bit too much having it all over the net, not very interesting and would be better as a minor detail to draw the eye to. Watercolour paper is a lovely material as it’s absorabant but keeps its shape and gives a little texture.

Mud looked good on the paper but the wrong net was chosen and it reminded me of a football, which is not good at all as I’m not really doing a sports project. Grrr. The sugar paper was badly cut and as it was hard to stick SO many sides together with the stubborn tape, it fell apart :c

I also tried [as suggested by my tutor] bodily elements, such as saliva on the sugar paper but it didn’t show up well enough to even bother posting it on. Not enough saliva was used but if more was used then it would leave quite a strangely beautiful translucent effect on the paper. So I will be trying that one again.

Then I used my own blood…..which made me feel a ‘little’ bit mental cutting my knee open. This was on sugar paper. It appears confusing and interesting, more scarlet and obviously blood than the meat and is quite subtle and not covering the entire net. I’ll be pushing that further too.

I also tried sweat, but I’d just had a shower and put my deodorant on so that didn’t even become a net. I may try again but I’m not sure [and I hope I don’t] produce enough sweat to make any kind of legible stain on the paper.

Finally I tried make up….it’s not really a part of me and it didn’t inspire me at all but I went ahead and made the net anyway, but I won’t bother any further with it as it doesn’t feel relevant.

The reason bodily elements feel is relevant is that, the project is a part of me. I take that one story around with me each day as luggage, it never goes away and part of me should perhaps be part of the work.

Oh and The Pyramid.... which messed up because i must have drawn or cut it slightly wrong. Luckily i'm not a fan anyway so i WON"T be going back to that one.

1/2 > Lamb on Watercolour paper
3/4 > Beef on Watercolour paper
5/6/7 > Mud on Sugar Paper
8/9 > Blood on sugar paper
10 > Make up on Newsprint
11 > Rubbish plain Pyramid on Watercolour paper