extension project: fine art / sculpture

14.10

the brief for this project is to work from an article found in a newspaper and work around the text. after looking for some interesting ones, i decided to work from the project i made in one of the workshops called "revelation of erasure" where i blacked out a good part of the content of a bit of an article to only keep the words i wanted and make a totally different meaning. the final sentence was

"the cutting edge to the cool world of communities will break young people that want to believe in themselves."

i felt that this sentence was quite powerful and decided to use it for my sculptural extension project. after doing some research around this sentence, i went to the conclusion that the affiliation to any kind of groups (rebellious, marginal, politics, or even cults) can mould and/or manipulate younger people. following a trend (fashion or actions) can influence younger generations to think as a group and not as individuals anymore. maybe take wrong decisions, forget their inner self and ideas to fit a mould, or even put their beliefs on the side to fit the common thinking. a lot of personal problems then come up from this kind of situation: isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression etc...

aim of the project:

the aim would be to question the affiliation to some groups and the contradictional aspects of trying to fit in while not being completely in phase with our own selves and beliefs, how we cope with it, what solutions we find and how they sometimes feed the problem itself. the cognitive dissonance around it will be an interesting thing to explore.

a greater number of people can lead to a moulded, sometimes erroneous common way of thinking or ideas, and the younger generations can be influenced by that aspect and sometimes in the wrong way. then things can get out of hand (see the movie "the wave" by Dennis Gansel, where their social experiment within a classroom on how replicating horrible facts from the past could not happen again. it got out of hand)

this project would help me explore and get a clear overview of what we do as a group, what we focus on and how we smooth out the edges to appear more conform, in a search of accepting ourselves, then how we feel as an individual within this social mould, by sometimes hiding what we really feel.

i am gonna work on this idea of cognitive dissonance, the contradiction between two aspects that could come in conflict but are related:

fit in / isolation.
loneliness in a crowded space.
following a trend/fashion / the anxiety of being accepted as an individual.
feeding anxiety/treating it

i then did a few sketches of some ideas of how a single element could interact with others. i didn't stick with this idea, i found it too vague. so instead i decided to work around something that triggers anxiety and something that treats it. the idea of a pill box, a prescription against symptoms of depression and anxiety came up. thinking that most of the younger generations are obsessed with fashion and accessories -as they see it as a way to fit in almost all the time- fashion and the idea of being self-conscious about our appearance, and the brands we unconsciously choose to wear and represent. does it help us to be accepted within a social sphere? i think this could bring a lot of anxiety to an individual.

the non sensical logic of consumerism and the anxiety around it.

i am gonna feel the pills with multicoloured tiny balls of sugar, to express the idiocy (from my perspective) of taking pills in order to either feel better or have fun.

16.10

the prada pill box being a representation of what could trigger anxiety towards younger generations (affiliations to group, self-consciousness, fear of judgement etc...), and what treats it (antidepressants, serotonin pills, etc...). i think it works quite well and with a bit of explanation, all the people i showed it to said it was well put and completely making sense.

i decided to make a notebook next to it, as a response to my sculpture. being said that we tend to cover up and hide anxiety and depression in our modern society, i felt like a notebook filled up with thoughts and poems about relationship with others could really help the meaning of the whole sculpture. we tend to hide what we feel and being a notebook person, a lot of my thoughts, fears and anxieties go in it. as i state in the preface of the book, i think taking medication is as strong as writing things down. two different types of therapy, often going hand in hand with each other. i guess i wanted it to feel more like a manifesto of a young generation at first, but in the end it got a bit more personal and this is what i like about it.

for the making of the book, i went down in the wood workshop, got a few planks of wood and started working them to make a book cover with them. i had to come up with a way to let the cover be able to fold. i made a 45° angle on both of the two parts of the cover to be able to fold it, and joined them with a shit of paper. i then wrote all the words on different pages put them together and did this japanese inspired bookbinding with a thread and needle. it took hours of delicate work and i am super happy with the finished product. i titled it "out of the woodwork" as a pun for the cover being made in the wood workshop, and the meaning of it: coming back from staying out of sight and/or in hiding after a while.

17.10

i had finished putting my work together today, just finished the small details and am actually super happy with the outcome of it. i think it's simple but communicates the message quite clearly. i've asked a few of my friends to tell me what they thought of it, and once i put it in context, they thought it was actually well-realized. we had to exhibit our work for the whole building to look at, going around every room and leave a word if they wanted to. i wasn't sure about it at first, being quite self conscious about my work, but in the end i received many nice feedbacks, it felt really good and rewarding after all the hard work and thinking i've put into it. i am definitely confident in saying that discovering sculpture really helped me to explore another way to express what i have to say with mediums i really enjoy working with. i really like it.

contextual practice

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