HYBRID HEROES | ALTER EGOSTitle: Photographic Memory
Size: 66.5cm x 24.5cm x 15cm Medium: Cardboard, Hot Glue Completion: March 12, 2021 Exhibition Text: This oversized camera, with contorted surreal proportions, represents both my love of photography and capturing beautiful moments, and my contrasting inner introversion. It was constructed solely out of cardboard, which only enhanced my creativity and allowed for some innovation in 3-dimensional artistic techniques.
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Inspiration
Artist in Focus: Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali, 1930s.
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Salvador Dali was an extremely well known surrealist painter throughout the 1930s, with his oeuvre expanding to similar styles in other decades. He's created several of some of the most famous surrealist works known to date, with his eccentric personality being a natural advertiser of his work. He's also known for writing essays, dabbling in photography and film, and publishing some controversial opinions that too often overshadowed his less popular work.
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Dali's surrealist style had many giveaways in the 30s, often experimenting with concepts such as time with obvious representations, such as clocks. However, as the early 30s turned into the late 30s, his style developed significantly, with more simplistic sketches and colorful pieces becoming his new standard. Along with this new phase of work came a new calling card of sorts, now being a bouquet or similar object covering the face of a figure, commonly surrounded by a sandy environment.
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Female Figure with Head of Flowers. Dali, 1937.
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Critical Investigation
(with a focus on thematic concepts over formal elements of art)
"Printemps Necrophilique" marked the beginning of a relatively dramatic left turn in Dali's experimentation with emotion, mood, and thematic concepts that tie into his consistent surrealist formal style. Dali uses varying objects to cover the faces of our two far away subjects to convey a very melancholy and mysterious mood. The two characters are made anonymous, and their stances, particularly the femme's, are very neutral. Their clothes are essentially colorless, with the only real attractor being the vibrancy of the objects covering their faces. The sense of scale and immense space also add to the piece's surrealist nature by creating drastic asymmetrical balance. The femme subject seems to be hidden by a convenient tree, while a seemingly male subject sits in a manner suggesting they are waiting or looking for someone or something. With this context, it can be inferred that the covering of the subjects' faces implies a metaphor for the man not being able to find the woman, who is directly next to him.
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Printemps Necrophilique. Dali, 1936.
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Planning
I started to plan for the Hybrid Heroes project by outlining ideas I had based on thematic topics and interests of mine. I narrowed my main topic to something having to do with photography and my love of silently capturing exposures of scenes in Milwaukee that I find beautiful or fascinating. My first idea for this had something to do with mock arms that hold out a camera in front of me, though this was later scrapped. Before settling on this subject, I also contemplated broader themes such as gender expression/dysphoria, as well as something to do with my extroversion and love of talking to friends and strangers alike. When creating these ideas, I kept referring to the requirements in order to imagine what types of structures I could make with the materials I have and with the rules I've been given.
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When I came to the conclusion that my original idea of including a pair of arms would be redundant, I decided upon the concept of wearing a camera like a helmet. My dream camera, a Contax G2, is the camera that I decided to model. I noted that the model's dimensions will not be to scale or proportionate with that of the original camera in order to accommodate the width of my head. I used measuring tape to note what would roughly be the smallest possible dimensions I could use for my project.
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I sketched what the camera would look like in proportion to the rest of my body, as well as the individual components I would create in order to make the entire model. However, I did not sketch the attachable flash because I feel that I may not have time to make it by the due date for the project. However, I did plan on making it anyways if I ended up having the spare time to do so.
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Thematic Concepts: Within Dali's "Printemps Necrophilique", the thematic concepts touched upon include a melancholy sense of false loneliness, despite being the beauty that one is searching for being right next to them without their knowledge. This is exactly relevant to the more personal topics I intend on representing with my piece. The choice to use a camera was due to my obsession with photography, specifically walking around my city taking photos of fascinating people and scenes that I feel make my environment beautiful and worthy of creating art with. I feel as though this love derives from my inner fear of loneliness, leaving the camera as my tool to always bring friends and strangers alike wherever I go.
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Color: As far as the colors in my model, I decided that it will be rather collage-like with different cardboard materials of varying colors. This is primarily due to my limitations with finding cardboard of primarily one color. This is also due to how I enjoy experimenting with color in both my photography and limitations, so I would like for this theme to carry over to this project, as well.
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Process & Experimentation
The main body of the camera was the easiest part to construct, including planning and measuring. The body is largely composed of flat, rectangular plates, creating an ultimately box-like shape. I used thick, layered cardboard for these larger plates. For the corners, I used long, narrow strips of the same material, but I peeled of one or two layers of cardboard to allow for more flexibility, as I needed to round the corners of the body. I knew going into the construction of this piece that the construction of the body would be rather bare bones, so to speak, and I would use thinner paper cardboard covering most of the body's surface to create a more finished look.
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I had to make sure the corners of the body of the camera were rounded, meaning I had to manipulate the shape of the cardboard. I placed each of my four strips in my bathtub and dampened each one with a rag, using a cup of water to gently pour over the cardboard if it wasn't thoroughly wet enough. I curled each piece into a rounded "L" shape, then slid on three rubber bands onto the strips so that they could keep their shape while they dried.
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My inspiration for my piece is extremely surreal in nature, so not only the actual content of my project had to fit this theme, but the size should be consistent with this theme as well. The body came up at just over a foot in height. While I had intended to not have the project take up quite this much space, I was happy with the result of the dimensions after being able to see its size in proportion to my body (pictured left). The more practical reasoning for some of the added height was to compensate for the model's extra width, which couldn't be proportionate to the real camera due to it having to fit around my head.
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The top of the body has a plate that elevates partway across its length. In order to construct this, I made a flat top to lay down, and then built the elevated portion on top of this surface. The ramp is far more angular and sharp in my model than the rounded surface of the real thing, so I took a single layer of very thin cardboard to cover the sharp corner that I had created, and give it the appearance of a rounded edge. The middle of this elevated section had started to sag because of a crease in the cardboard, so I created several small tubes of cardboard to prop it up (shown above left).
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There are three knobs on the top of the camera, right above the hand grip. The two regular knobs were created using two different methods. For the one seen on the left within the photo, I layered two circular pieces of thick cardboard, then made two more circles with a circumference that was 2cm larger than the previous layers. I stacked these larger circles on top of the smaller ones, as this particular knob has this shape on the real-life camera model. For the knob seen to the right of this one, I had to make it slightly taller, so I cut a long strip of cardboard and rolled it into a circle. This acted as the first layer, and I then cut out a circle with the same circumference to use as a sort of cap.
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The third part of this section is a part known as the "film advance lever". When pushed forward, the roll of film inside of the camera will slide to the next empty space to take another photo. Every time a photo is taken, this lever needs to be pushed, so I because of it's common use, I decided to make this lever actually function on my model.
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I was able to allow this lever to turn by creating a relatively simple axel-type mechanism. Applied to the body is a short tube, and on the knob is a tube with a slightly smaller circumference. This tube inserts in the first one and fits perfectly, allowing the device to turn. On a real camera, the lever can only turn by so many degrees until it goes back to its original position, so I created several small dividers on both parts of the mechanism to restrict it's movement.
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On the front of the camera is three small inlets that have individual windows within them. I was able to recreate this by cutting out the shape of each inlet from the body, and then putting a strip of cardboard behind it, leaving three rectangular indents. I then repeated this for the respective windows, creating another indented layer, using light blue cardboard this time.
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The lens was created using more flexible cardboard material, specifically large cereal boxes. The cardboard is much thinner, and is ideal for shaping with ease. I traced a perfect circle the proportionate dimensions of the real life lens, and layered widening strips of cardboard around this shape, making three sort of "layers", giving the look of several parts that allow the lens to focus and lengthen. I used the rigid part of triple layered cardboard to cover two of these parts, as these parts of the real model are rigid for the fingers to grip as they turn this part of the lens. On the inside, I created a cylinder shaped piece of cardboard, with small colorful bits of flare to simulate a more cartoonish representation of the glass that would be inside of the lens. I used pieces of a paper bag to line the rest of the inside of the lens surrounding this can-like feature.
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Compare and Contrast
Similarities
- Most recognizably, both pieces cover the subject's entire heads with an object that would normally not be on a person's head; a sort of juxtaposition when combined with the human body.
- Both works hone in on an inner sense of loneliness, a feeling of being lost or as though one can't find what they are looking for. My work relates specifically to my inclination to these feelings and how my form of therapy is photography. - The two works are also rather similar in their color, both comprised almost entirely of neutral tans and browns, with small extra vibrant details. |
Differences
- While Dali's work contains some more romantic themes that are implied through the work's composition and symbolism, my work excludes any ties to romance and is more personal.
- Dali's work includes two subjects, while my work includes only one headpiece, worn by myself. However, the broader themes implied by two subjects is still tied to my piece. - The overall shape and detail of my work is far different than that of the woman with the bouquet around her head, which would include more points of color and more small, repetitive details. |
Reflection
The experience of creating this sculpture was rather unfamiliar to me, as I rarely work in 3-D. However, the process was extremely rewarding and satisfying, though unforgiving. I was limited with my tools, and had to be extremely delicate with my cutting techniques in order to have as proportionate and as finely cut pieces as I could. There were many mistakes involved, and some of the methods came after long sessions of trial-and-error. However, I did find great satisfaction in figuring out what methods to use for trickier sections of the model. Throughout the entire process, the sense of my skills improving became more and more apparent, much quicker than I thought. I became more and more familiar with my tools, as well as the ways in which I could manipulate my materials, especially regarding how to use water to my advantage. Soaking, shaping, and drying the cardboard was a somewhat arduous process, with the materials sometimes bending out of shape as they dried. Although, these errors were easy to correct once the pieces were applied to the model using hot glue. I thoroughly enjoyed adding more and more layers to the piece and watching the detail became more and more representative of the real life camera, and the final product looks just as surreal as I wanted when I wear it on my head.
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ACT Questions
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Through my research of my inspiration's thematic concepts, and the research of 3-dimensional techniques, I was able to combine several different methodologies to create a piece that represented a personal part of me. The processes I learned through my research very much informed the layers and intricacies of the final product.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
This side of Dali's work is lesser discussed, however, the themes touched upon within this particular type of work from Dali is regarded with respect for his use of both color and symbolism.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through Dali's implications and explanations of his works like my particular work of inspiration, I concluded that the sense of being lost and lonely portrayed through his work is a natural process, one that even the most famous artists go through at least several times throughout different points in their life.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The primary thematic topics being focused on had to do with loneliness and a sense of not being able to find what one is looking far, as well as a general feelings of hopeful ness on top the more negative concepts.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that the context behind a seemingly simple piece of art matters more than one may originally conclude. There are usually deeper themes tied to some forms of art that are implied and can be found upon closer inspection or through dedicated research.
Through my research of my inspiration's thematic concepts, and the research of 3-dimensional techniques, I was able to combine several different methodologies to create a piece that represented a personal part of me. The processes I learned through my research very much informed the layers and intricacies of the final product.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
This side of Dali's work is lesser discussed, however, the themes touched upon within this particular type of work from Dali is regarded with respect for his use of both color and symbolism.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Through Dali's implications and explanations of his works like my particular work of inspiration, I concluded that the sense of being lost and lonely portrayed through his work is a natural process, one that even the most famous artists go through at least several times throughout different points in their life.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The primary thematic topics being focused on had to do with loneliness and a sense of not being able to find what one is looking far, as well as a general feelings of hopeful ness on top the more negative concepts.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that the context behind a seemingly simple piece of art matters more than one may originally conclude. There are usually deeper themes tied to some forms of art that are implied and can be found upon closer inspection or through dedicated research.