Thursday 15 September 2011

The Beginning

I have started this blog mid way through a trail of thought so trying to find a starting post is becoming a bit tricky.  I don't want it to become confusing or random but I guess I have to start some where.  It only seems apt to start at the place where the trail of thought initially started: my cat...






I have studied the shape, texture, and scale of cats and I am now moving onto the idea of movement.  This is still a very fresh idea so i'm excited to see whats going to happen!

Tiny Tremors of Movement

The idea of static movement was started in a piece I made for my degree show called Arms and Legs all the same





It's constructed entirely of cardboard strips, glued together to create stick like legs.  The piece moves from the wall in an almost chaotic tumbling fashion onto the floor, where the cardboard lengths form a densely packed group of verticals.  The addition of colour reinforces its density and also accentuates the different heights within the piece.   Its initial inspiration came from Philip Guston's painting Multiplied where depicted at its centre a cluster of upside down legs and shoes.  I then linked this to the fact that cats unlike humans have only legs and then quite basically asked myself what do legs do? MOVE, which brings us around to the movement idea.  Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase also played an important part.  Its angularity and repeated sharp lines make an almost mundane occurrence, walking down a flight of stairs, into something immensely dramatic and powerful.  I really like his confident and strong use of line and wanted to try and translate elements of that into Arms and Legs...   


Philip Guston, Multiplied, 1972

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912