"Familiar"
Mixed Media July 2022 |
Exhibition Text This mixed media piece was created using metal wire, polymer clay, and a shadow box. My intention for this project was to make a connection between the current situation surrounding Roe v. Wade and abortion in the United States and an artist who specializes in a medium that I am comfortable and confident in. The artist I chose as my inspiration is a Japanese pottery artist names Noriko Kuresumi, based in New York City. I created this piece to encourage conversation that many deem uncomfortable.
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Additional Photos
Critical Investigation
"Underwater Sea Creatures Collection", Noriko Kuresumi
Inspiration
Noriko Kuresumi is a Japanese ceramic and pottery artist who is based in New York City. Her most notable artwork is her Underwater Sea Creatures Collection. As quoted in her artist statement, "This sea is the origin of life. All lives are connected and have been supporting each other. I create my work by imagining the source of harmony and balance of the ocean.", Noriko Kuresumi. This can be interpreted in many ways but I depicted these sculptures and her statement to be a connection between sea life and human life because while her work resembles exotic sea creatures, the sculptures were also created to resemble the female anatomy. The organic lines of each sculpture highlights the natural flow and of the pieces. Rather than looking artificial or man made, the sculptures look raw and untouched like a piece of coral. Unlike other pottery and ceramic artists, Noriko uses neutral tones which represent the natural beauty and sensitivity of both the female anatomy and sea life. Color isn't needed to enhance the form and beauty of the pottery as the flow of the pieces speak for themselves. The overall lack of color, in fact, illustrates the preservation of purity in each sculpture as white is typically describes as a pure color. I felt a connection to this collection specifically because of the body positive and feminine representation that Kuresumi exhibits in these sculptures. I have always been interested in creating art that is empowering for women and sheds light on body positivity so when I found Noriko Kuresumi, I was immediately inspired to create my sculpture. For this project, I wanted to be able to recreate the same organic flow technique that Kuresumi used for her ceramics while also adding my own modern touch that sheds light on the current political situation surrounding abortion.
Planning
For these planning sketches I wanted to experiment with the 3 dimensional aspect of this project because I generally create and focus on 2D art and I wanted to try something new. I knew that I wanted to make a pair of earrings because I wanted to highlight the femininity of this project and although accessories don't make a person feminine and not all feminine people wear earrings, I wanted to incorporate a general object associated with femininity. I also wanted to incorporate the idea of political culture because political culture includes the way people feel about certain political topic and I wanted to represent how this ban negatively impacts women and people with uterus's in America.. I next had to decide what medium I was going to use for the earrings. I didn't have the necessary materials that are needed for pottery so I decided to go with the next best thing available to me, polymer clay. I wanted my earrings to resemble the sculptures as much as possible so I decided to use a pearl/white colored clay so that I would be able to recreate that clean and pristine appearance that Kuresumi used for her sculptures. I drew out some of the general shapes of different clay cutters I had and I ended up deciding that I wanted to create an earring that had a circular top and a tear drop bottom in order to imitate the appearance of the female anatomy. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the earrings after they were finished so I started sketching out the women's equality symbol but I eventually decided against it. I then decided that I wanted to incorporate a coat hanger into this sculpture because metal coat hangers are a well know symbol for the pro-choice movement. After I decided I wanted to incorporate the coat hanger, I began sketching out how I wanted the earrings to look. I made sure to sketch out the wavy organic lines that Noriko applies to her sculptures as well as the different layers that she builds up on each sculpture. Finally, I planned out where I was going to place the coat hanger and the earrings. I decided that I wanted to display my sculpture in a shadow box because Noriko's sculptures look like they are sitting all alone in their own little world and I wanted to recreate this loneliness by incorporating a shadow box into the final product of my own sculpture.
Process
To begin, I started off by picking the color of clay that I wanted to use. I wanted to use a pearl color but the pearl I had appeared to have grey undertones so I mixed it with some white so I could cancel out that grey. Next, I started to experiment using the silk technique by bending and folding the clay to create a wavy and fabric like texture. After I tested out the technique a few times, the clay finally got to a texture that was satisfactory.
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After I got the texture the way I wanted it, I used my teardrop clay cutter to cut out a desirable shape. I then made some adjustments to the waves and folds in the shape so that the edges appeared very abstract and non uniform just like Noriko's sculptures. I then cut a slit down the middle so that when I add future layers, the middle wouldn't get super bulky and uneven. I also wanted to make sure that I would have room to add detail to the middle of the earring and cutting down the middle was the best way of going about that.
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Next, after I baked the first layer at 275° F, I repeated the steps above so that I could add a second layer to the first teardrop. I made sure to again reshape the edges of the cutout so that they weren't as subtle and then I cut a slit down the middle of the shape again to make room for the next layer.
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After I baked my second layer, I added my third and final layer. I wanted to add some detail to the middle of the earring so I rolled some clay into a straight line and then I cut out equally sized pieces. I then rolled each of the pieces between my fingers so that they were round. Finally, I added each individual piece to the inside of the earring so that I could fill the entire cut that I made between each layer.
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Next, I rolled out a piece of clay and used a circular clay cutter to make the top part of my earring. I also used a needle tool to make a dot around the edge of the circle. I then popped my circle piece into the oven and after it was done baking, I used my dremel tool to drill into the indent I made with the needle tool so that the hole would be even.
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Finally, to finish off the earrings, I attached the teardrop shape to the circular shape using the earring link pictured on the right. After they were connected, I needed to attach the earring posts to the back of the circular piece. To do this, I just used some gorilla clue because it's durable and easy to work with. Finally, I added the stud backing to the end of the post so that I would be able to secure the earring to the coat hanger later on.
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After I cut off the piece I wanted to work with, I used my pliers to score where I wanted to bend the wire to make the base of the coat hanger.
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Continuing on to making the coat hanger, I didn't have any access to metal wire so I just used a full sized coat hanger. I started off by cutting off the actual hanger part with some pliers so that I could work with the straight part of the hanger.
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To finish off the sculpture, I glued the earrings to the bottom of the coat hanger so that they appeared like they were just hanging there by themselves. I then decided that I wanted to put the entire pieces into a shadow box to mimic the white background that Noriko used in her sea creature series. The frame came with pins so I pinned the hanger inside the box and then I secured the pins with gorilla glue. After I was done I closed up the box and made sure everything stayed in it's desired place.
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Experimentation
Similarly to colored pencils, I have been using polymer clay as a medium for years. I am extremely familiar with the process of handling polymer clay and also making earrings using said clay. However, I am very unfamiliar with sculptures and creating art using mediums other than clay or pencil or paint. Although I have been working with clay for a while, for this project specifically, I had to use a technique that I wasn't versed in. Because of this I experimented with folding the clay and bunching it up to give the clay an almost fabric like appearance. This technique allowed me to create a very organic and elegant wave with the clay that looked similar to the sculptures created by Noriko. I also had to experiment with layering the clay. I don't usually layer clay when I use it so I had to go through some trial and error with adding different wave layers to the clay making sure not to squish the layers below. I eventually found that baking each layer of clay before adding another on top worked best to reduce fingerprints and disfigurement on the lower layers. After I finished my earrings, I then moved onto making my coat hanger. I didn't want to incorporate a full size coat hanger into my final product so I decided that I wanted to create my own miniature coat hanger to hang my earrings from. I wasn't really sure what kind of metal wire I was going to use at first but I eventually decided that I could just use a full size coat hanger to make my miniature coat hanger. Again, I haven't really done anything with materials other than paint and colored pencils so this was my first time truly attempting to bend and shape metal wire. After some experimentation, I found that if I created the wire with my pliers then the wire would be easier to bend. After a couple wasted coat hangers, I was finally able to form a coat hanger shape with my creasing technique.
Critique
This project was inspired by the works of artist Noriko Kuresumi and her abstract porcelain sculptures and there are many similarities and differences between our pieces. To compare, just like in the "Underwater Sea Creatures Collection", I went with the same neutral/white color scheme. I usually use lots of color in every piece that I create so I wanted to replicate this clean and untouched color scheme that Kuresumi used in her sculptures. Another similarity is the wavy and abstract texture that Noriko uses in her sculptures. I wanted to recreate this natural and organic flow to include in my earrings so that my sculpture would carry that sea creature/female anatomy appearance that is present in Noriko's pottery. Moving onto the differences, one big element that is different between both of our pieces is the size. Noriko's sculptures are quite obviously larger in size than the earrings I created because I didn't want to create a very blunt sculpture and because I planned on making earrings I wanted them to be a reasonable size. Another difference would be the overall execution of my sculpture in comparison to Noriko's sculpture. Noriko's entire piece consisted of just a sculpture. However, my piece has multiple parts included such as the metal coat hanger and the shadow box which were not elements included in my inspiration pictures. The final difference is the medium. Although we both used clay to complete these pieces, Noriko used ceramic clay and pottery techniques and I used polymer clay which is more suitable for smaller projects such as this.
Reflection
My inspiration for this project was artist Noriko Kuresumi. I admire how Kuresumi uses an almost abstract technique to represent different forms of life on both land and sea. I wanted to be able to capture this abstract concept and implement it into my own work along with political culture. I also wanted to be able to recreate the same organic and natural appearance of her sculptures. I loved how Noriko was able to recreate the same style and implement it into an entire series of sculptures. I also loved how although there is and incredible amount of detail within each fold and layer, the overall appearance of the sculpture is simple because of the neutral color scheme. I also really enjoyed the overall difference of each piece. The same techniques are used for every sculpture but no two are alike. If I were to recreate this sculpture, I would try to perfect the coat hanger because although I was happy with the end result I feel like if I had more experience with wire bending the outcome would just be incredible. I would also try and add more layers to the earrings because the sculptures that were created by Kuresumi had a seemingly endless amount of layers that really brought each piece to life. My biggest challenge for this project was creating the miniature coat hanger. Again, I don't have any experience with wire bending so it was definitely a challenge trying to make sure the lines on the coat hanger were straight and keep the shape of the coat hanger in tact. Overall, I really loved the outcome of this sculpture and I think that the meaning behind the sculpture is truly relevant to today and extremely significant. I am incredibly proud of the finished product and this may be one of my favorite pieces thus far.
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.
Noriko Kuresumi's organic and natural ceramic sculptures inspired me to create a sculpture that represented the organic appearance of the female anatomy and a current and pressing issue going on in America right now.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Noriko Kuresumi wanted to represent different forms of life on both land and water however I am not sure how the artist I choose would approach the topic of abortion and the struggles women go through when trying to receive reproductive care.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
A conclusion that I have made is that many people have different opinions about different things just like how art can be viewed as having different meanings.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme that surrounded my research was pottery and abortion/reproductive rights.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that Noriko Kuresumi wanted to connect the female anatomy to her sculptures because although it is not directly stated in her artist statement, there is a resemblance.
Noriko Kuresumi's organic and natural ceramic sculptures inspired me to create a sculpture that represented the organic appearance of the female anatomy and a current and pressing issue going on in America right now.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Noriko Kuresumi wanted to represent different forms of life on both land and water however I am not sure how the artist I choose would approach the topic of abortion and the struggles women go through when trying to receive reproductive care.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
A conclusion that I have made is that many people have different opinions about different things just like how art can be viewed as having different meanings.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme that surrounded my research was pottery and abortion/reproductive rights.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that Noriko Kuresumi wanted to connect the female anatomy to her sculptures because although it is not directly stated in her artist statement, there is a resemblance.
Bibliography
1.) Noriko Kuresumi. (2022). Retrieved 8 August 2022, from https://www.norikokuresumi.com/
2.) Underwater Sea Creature Sculptures by Noriko Kuresumi. (2022). Retrieved 8 August 2022, from https://www.spoon-tamago.com/2012/05/23/underwater-sea-creature-sculptures-by-noriko-kuresumi/
2.) Underwater Sea Creature Sculptures by Noriko Kuresumi. (2022). Retrieved 8 August 2022, from https://www.spoon-tamago.com/2012/05/23/underwater-sea-creature-sculptures-by-noriko-kuresumi/