MAPPING HOME
This piece, as explained in my post 11/2, derived from the definition I determined for the theme of mapping: creating a sense of place through its relationships. I have developed an intimate and doll-house like space that has mapped how two rooms in my childhood home have acted as my bedrooms, as well as other spaces over time. I have recreated their defining objects from my deeply-steeped memories in the spaces and placed them in relation to each other in my acrylic structure, mapping the place, my relationship to it, and how the place relates to the passage of time. I traditionally would have approached a project like this by making objects by hand out of paper, but the guidelines of the dice (mapping, sculpture, digital drawing/painting) asked me to think about the concept from a new perspective - in a 3-dimensional space and utilizing technology, which allowed me to create a project that speaks to my ideas concepts as an art maker, but through a new visual language when compared to my greater body of work.
PROCESS
Building the structure of the acrylic box posed some challenges as model-making is not a skill I have much past experience in. Because I felt that the digital painting aspect created objects that read as "clean" and "modern", the idea to use a clear box really derived from the feel of using technology to create the objects for the structure. I think that if I had made the drawings by hand, an acrylic box would have not worked in the visual theme, and it would have made more sense to create the structure out of something more rugged, like wood. Because I determined that I wanted a clear box, it took some experimental thinking to determine what I would construct the box out of as well as how to build it. Finding that a number of glues did not hold the structure together, it took three tries to finally find a glue specific to making models out of plastic.
The creation of the objects also derived somewhat from the guidelines. I knew immediately what the objects should be to reflect the changing rooms, as these are the two spaces that are arguably the most important to me in my life and where I have spent the most amount of time out of any locations I have lived or experienced. The question was therefore not what objects to make, but how to represent them. Because I was guided to create them digitally based on my dice roll, I decided that it opened an opportunity for digital collage, and that I could find and re-create the furniture pieces and decor to an incredibly accurate level. Indeed, I found the exact chair I had had in my teenage bedroom and the exact brand of record storage crates my dad had housed in the upstairs room. Finding and manipulating these images was much more enjoyable than I expected, and lead to much nostalgia when I found something that could be used and modified to fit the memory. To unify the images, I further manipulated them with filters and adjustments on Photoshop. To appropriately relate the sizes of the objects, I created a square the size the room would be (either 4"x4" or 4"x5") and layered all images together in relation to one another (see third and fourth image below). Having read many articles on how technology has the ability to "remix" materials, I found this to be an excellent example of remixing information to change its meaning by putting into a new and highly personal context.
The final step was assembly. I was originally envisioning the objects hanging from thin clear or metal wire. However, after purchasing these materials and testing them, it was clear that they were too flimsy and bowed too much to hold the objects in the spatial areas I needed them in. Looking for something more sturdy, and equally un-obstructive, I decided to try strips of medium weight Duralar (which I had originally sourced for the first assignment for this class). The strips gave much more support and after attaching them all, my only final challenge was hanging them from the top of my structure. This also took a few attempts, but I landed on a single piece of Duralar with small individual slits cut in it to support each object and to finally create the depth of space (and time!) needed for the project. From there, I folded and cut my individual objects to the correct height, based on what I had mapped out in my room plans above.
This project meant a lot to me on a personal level. I set out with an idea for a design that I wasn't completely sure how I would engineer, but that I was able to accomplish. The theme of continuing to use the clear Duralar in my work to express passage of time and an overlapping of experience is something that I think worked even more successfully than I had originally envisioned. Once the box was assembled, I realized that there were so many different angles to explore the work from - and because I had originally envisioned it being observed from straight ahead, these different angles provided a great amount of surprise because of the perspective shifts through the clear walls. The pieces read clearly and I think the intimacy with which I related to the materials was expressed through their size and relations to each other. I am glad that I was pushed to think more sculpturally and encouraged to use digital collage to create the pieces because it created an effect that I believe is more successful than if I had recreated the objects by hand or presented them in a 2-dimensional way. I look forward to sharing the pieces with my parents and sister, who have the same amount of deep fondness for the objects, as the pieces also map out their histories and memories of the home and history we have shared together.
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