Ephemera
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Beauty is Ugly
Size: 30x30x6cm Medium: copper wire, branches, and roses Date: October, 2016 My piece focuses on how harmful the "want to be beautiful" can be. I created a flower crown using orange roses that symbolize desire and beauty. I put these orange roses on a crown of wrapped branches with thorns to symbolize the harm this desire can have. The roses will eventually die which makes it an ephemeral peice and also symbolizes toxicity. |
Artistic Inspiration
My artistic inspiration is a south African contemporary artist and political activist named Andries Botha who works in Durban. Along with being incredibly active in his community, country, and in the world, he is well known for being a sculptor. He is most well known for creating incredibly realistic and life-size sculptures of elephants. These sculptures are built using layers of drift wood bolted down to metallic skeletons of animals-they are made with a combination of wood, rock, and metal. His art combines the use of naturally found objects with the use of industrial bolts and structure. This inspired me to combine natural flowers with industrial wire.
In one of his most well-known works-You Can Buy My Heart and Soul- he replicated a family of elephants walking along the coastline in Belgium. Each of his elephant figures are incredibly detailed and planned out and could easily fool a viewer who thought they were real animals. When you are farther away from the work, it looks just like a gray elephant, but when you get closer, you can see all of the detail in the different pieces that were put together. Being closer to the work allows you to see the metal bolts holding the structure together and also allows you to see the hundreds of different carefully chosen drift wood pieces that link together. This inspired me to create an object that looks one way when you're farther away, but then allows you to see all of the detail and different pieces put into the object when you're closer up. Botha attempts to send a message to the viewer of perseverance of nature and of the importance of being sustainable. He uses native symbols to create a connection between the art and the viewer or “learner”. His work is presented in many different countries, which I think really gives a feeling of a universal theme, seeing as all sorts of people all over the world can connect with his ideas.
In one of his most well-known works-You Can Buy My Heart and Soul- he replicated a family of elephants walking along the coastline in Belgium. Each of his elephant figures are incredibly detailed and planned out and could easily fool a viewer who thought they were real animals. When you are farther away from the work, it looks just like a gray elephant, but when you get closer, you can see all of the detail in the different pieces that were put together. Being closer to the work allows you to see the metal bolts holding the structure together and also allows you to see the hundreds of different carefully chosen drift wood pieces that link together. This inspired me to create an object that looks one way when you're farther away, but then allows you to see all of the detail and different pieces put into the object when you're closer up. Botha attempts to send a message to the viewer of perseverance of nature and of the importance of being sustainable. He uses native symbols to create a connection between the art and the viewer or “learner”. His work is presented in many different countries, which I think really gives a feeling of a universal theme, seeing as all sorts of people all over the world can connect with his ideas.
Planning
From the beginning of this project, I knew that I wanted to work with flowers of some sort. I began to research the meaning of different types of flowers and colors. This would help me to figure out what I wanted to do. The flowers that I chose to use were roses because they represent beauty. Upon conducting further research, I found that orange/coral roses symbolize desire. This helped me to come up with the idea to create a flower crown, and also helped me with my intended theme.
Other theme ideas that I had included the idea of "temporary" or superficial beauty, contrasting the importance of outer vs inner beauty, aging, and death. I knew that because it was an ephemeral piece, I wanted to use the decaying of flowers to represent an idea. When I finally chose to create a flower crown, I thought of different ideas on how I would represent the never ending search for beauty which is often unattainable. I first thought of layering different colors of roses to symbolize the overpowering pressure to be perfect. My final decision was to only use one color and kind of flower, but to bind these flowers onto a base of thorns. |
Process
I started my ephemeral piece by cutting thorn branches and gathering roses. At first I wasn't wearing gloves and it was hard to pick the branches up without cutting myself on the thorns. I had to gather branches that were skinny enough to be able to bend into a circular shape, but at the same time long enough so they could go all the way around my head. This was hard because many of the branches I found were too thick to bend in a circle without breaking. Once I gathered all of the necessary branches, I cut off most of the smaller leaves and growths. I did this so that the branches would be easier to work with and so I could easily see what I was doing
After cutting off many of the leaves on the branches, I started to form the base of the head piece by taking one of the strongest flexible branches and shaping it into a circle. I had to measure the width of the circle on my head and make sure I didn't get poked by the thorns at the same time so that the crown would be the right size. After starting to shape the branches into a circle, I wrapped wire around the connecting ends to insure that they would stay in place. I decided to use wire and not string because I really wanted there to be a contrast between something industrial like copper wire and the flowers. My artistic inspiration, Andries Botha, inspired me to do this. I also chose to use copper wire to connect the thorn branches because I make jewelry and so I am familiar with this medium. When wrapping the wire around the branches, I made sure to wrap it tightly and close together each time to create a cleaner look. Once I created a circular base for the head piece, I kept on adding branches around it in order to make it thicker, and stronger. Once I created the whole base, I started to cut the stems of the roses shorter. After all of the roses were cut short, I positioned them around the piece so that they would be evenly spaced. I attached the roses the same way as I connected the branches together-by wrapping copper wire tightly around the stem and the branches. Then the flowers died. |
Reflection
Overall, I like how my finished ephemeral peice turned out. I like how I was able to cleanly combine the use of natural plants and copper wire, and I think that this really reflected my artistic inpiration. I feel as though wrapping the copper around the branches was pretty easy because I make jewlery so I have some practice.
The peice is a symbol with an interesting and relevent meaning, and I like that I was able to do some research on different flowers and plants. Every artistic choice that I made has some significance to the overal meaning and/or artistic inpiration.
The one thing that I would do differently if I were to complete an ephemeral project like this again is connect not only materials and appearance to my original artistic inpiration, but also strongly connect the theme of the original artwork to the theme of my piece. While I believe the themes connect loosely, Botha's work focuses more on sustainability while mine is focused more on pressure from the media to be beautiful.
The peice is a symbol with an interesting and relevent meaning, and I like that I was able to do some research on different flowers and plants. Every artistic choice that I made has some significance to the overal meaning and/or artistic inpiration.
The one thing that I would do differently if I were to complete an ephemeral project like this again is connect not only materials and appearance to my original artistic inpiration, but also strongly connect the theme of the original artwork to the theme of my piece. While I believe the themes connect loosely, Botha's work focuses more on sustainability while mine is focused more on pressure from the media to be beautiful.
Connecting my ephemeral piece to the ACT
1) How are you able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
My inspiration- Andries Botha's elephants- had a direct effect on my ephemeral piece. For example, Andries Botha uses a mix of drift wood and industrial material like metal bolts to create his sculptures. This inspired me to use the same kind of contrast of materials-flowers and copper wire.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Andries Botha has a positive view towards his subjects. The theme and ideas that the elephants stand for are about sustainability.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've made the generalization that South Africa may be more sustainable or look at sustainability differently than we do in America.
4) What was the central idea for theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my artistic inspiration focuses on the idea of spreading the idea of sustainability. The artwork shows universal symbols of beauty and of nature.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I'd say I probably made some inferences about all of Bothas art. Before I did research on him, I I thought that he was only a sculptor of elephants but he actually does many other things.
My inspiration- Andries Botha's elephants- had a direct effect on my ephemeral piece. For example, Andries Botha uses a mix of drift wood and industrial material like metal bolts to create his sculptures. This inspired me to use the same kind of contrast of materials-flowers and copper wire.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Andries Botha has a positive view towards his subjects. The theme and ideas that the elephants stand for are about sustainability.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've made the generalization that South Africa may be more sustainable or look at sustainability differently than we do in America.
4) What was the central idea for theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my artistic inspiration focuses on the idea of spreading the idea of sustainability. The artwork shows universal symbols of beauty and of nature.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I'd say I probably made some inferences about all of Bothas art. Before I did research on him, I I thought that he was only a sculptor of elephants but he actually does many other things.
Citations
Botha, A. (2012). Andries Botha on the Rhino Burning project. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://andriesbotha.net/
Andries Botha is an artist based in Durban, South Africa - radicate.eu. (2016). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://www.radicate.eu/andries-botha/
Rose color Meanings - Meaning of Rose Colors. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.rkdn.org/roses/colors.asp
Andries Botha is an artist based in Durban, South Africa - radicate.eu. (2016). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://www.radicate.eu/andries-botha/
Rose color Meanings - Meaning of Rose Colors. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.rkdn.org/roses/colors.asp