What a Relief
Title: Locket Model
Size: (Front 44.45cm x 41.91cm) (Open 82.55cm) Medium: Cardboard and Paper Bags Completion: February 2024 Exhibition TextMy Locket Model is a relief sculpture that is a representation of critical thinking, and the process it took to design a conceptual product. The product connects back to my previous product design project; I designed a digital locket, based on relationships and memories. The Locket Model sculpture was made of found cardboard and paper bags. This project's inspiration from the concept of sculpture was Claes Oldenburg as his sculptures are enlarged everyday objects with an artistic touch.
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Inspiration
The inspiration for my sculpture “____” was the artist Claes Oldenburg. Oldenburg was a Swedish-American artist who worked in the pop art movement. While he grew up in Sweden and America, he focused the meaning behind his artworks on American consumer life and everyday mundane objects. When he moved to New York in 1956, Oldenburg found art possibilities in the environment of street life. He was best known for his large sculptures; the materials he used to create the sculptures were often banal products such as cloth and paper bags. The materials he used were a commentary on consumer life. Because of the materials he used, His sculptures were often considered “soft sculptures .” However, his art piece, Clothespin, doesn’t fall under the “Soft sculpture” category as it is made of cor-ton steel. Another reason he started creating larger sculptures was to reverse the traditional relationship between the viewer and the object. Normally, the object is smaller, and the viewer looks over it, but with his works, the viewer is looked over by the object. One of Oldenburg’s pieces that I enjoyed was Clothespin. The meaning behind the creation of the Clothespin was to celebrate the role of design in everyday life, that meaning I found an interesting perspective on everyday objects. However, that perspective got me to question the thought and design that goes into making certain objects. Seeing this made me think about how even the simplest-looking objects can be complex when forming them into their completion. Focusing on the elements of the sculpture, form, color, and movement are most present. This big sculpture was made to have the same form as an everyday clothespin. Movement movement is relevant because the sculpture is displayed and affects how the viewer’s eye moves it. This display relates to Oldenburg’s desire to change the traditional relationship between the viewer and the object. Another one of my inspirations is a modern artist, Marco Cianfanelli, who is known for his sculpture work. Browsing through his work, I was looking for a piece that used a lot of lines. I then found his sculpture, Nelson Mandela, which was revealed to the public in August 2012. I took inspiration from this specific piece because I was intrigued by the illusion created. To see the image, the viewer had to view it from a particular perspective. I also thought that the sculpture had a great use of line and space to create the image. The last artist I took inspiration from was Anne Truitt. She was a minimalist sculpture artist; her sculptures were very minimalistic in form and color. To an average viewer, all they see is a block or form of a solid color or color blocked. However, the purpose of her minimalistic pieces was to depict a little juxtaposition between the color and form of the sculpture. She wanted to create feelings that reminded her of her childhood. The specific piece I took importation from was Morning Choice. I liked the simple, solid look of the colors stacked on each other.
Planning
This planning sketch was an idea inspired by the sculpture artist Anne Truitte. This sketch also focuses on the principle of balance, and the elements of color, shape, and form. The idea was for each shape to be a different color of different values, similar to how Truitte's sculptures vary in color and or value. The original idea behind this sculpture was for it to be interactive and see how the audience would "balance" out the shapes, maybe in terms of color, size, shape, physical balance. I was not sure what color I wanted to use, that is why the shapes are not colored in. Ultimately, I didn't choose to continue with this idea as I didn't feel it fit the prompt.
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The other planning sketch was inspired by the artists Marco Cianfanelli. His sculpture is a anamorphosis sculpture, where the viewer has to be standing in specific area to view the sculpture to fully see what it is meant to be depicting, This sketch focuses on line and how it forms a picture. The meaning behind this sketch is that to see how to understand the toxic relationships, one needs to see it from a certain perspective to get the whole picture of the situation. While I felt the concept was interesting in terms of concept and style, I felt that this wouldn't be executed cleanly with cardboard.
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My last sketch is inspired by the artist Claes Oldenburg. I was inspired by how he took smaller, more everyday objects and enlarged them to show off its design qualities. Coming up with my third sketch I wanted to connect back to a previous project I did. The previous project was an industrial design where I designed a digital locket in the shape of a heart. I thought about building a model of how it could possibly physically function, and it'll still connect to my theme. Into the planning, I had to take into consideration the restrictions of this project. I couldn't make the sculpture bigger than 36 inches in all directions. I knew I wanted the ability to be able to open the locket to showcase the inside. So I did some math and decided that 15 inches is the widest I could go to make the heart shape. I then had to
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"double" the 15 inches, to account for the space it would take up with it is open, which would add up to 30 inches. With 6 inches left, I decided to only do a hinge with a diameter of 2 inches. SO in total the heart locket when closed would be 17 inches, and then 32 inches when open. More measurements I needed to consider was how thick I wanted the heart locket to be. I didn't want it to be too thin because I felt it would take away from the original design where there would be technology inside. But I also didn't want it to be too thick as it would then look proportionally off. So, in terms of width, and depth of the inside. I chose the outer hearts to be 4 inches thick, and the inside to have a depth of 1 inch on both sides. so the total of depth when closed would be 10 inches, and when open 5 inches per side.
Process
My first step was to cut out three heart shapes all 15 x 15 inches. I needed to cut three out so I could have two heart shapes for the base of each side of the locket, and the third heart shape I am going to use to start the mold to create the 3-D heart dome. the first steps to doing this I drew out a 15 x 15 inch square, made a 16 box grid and started sketching a heart out. Once I was satisfied with the shape of the heart I cut it out, and repeated this step three times for the most accurate 15 inch sized hearts. I also repeated this same step for making smaller hearts to create a mold with more dimension. Every time I would make a new heart for the mold I would subtract 1 inch from every heart. I went from a 15 inch heart down to a 10 inch heart.
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When all the heart pieces sizes 15in, 14in, 13in, 12in, 11in, and the 10in were cut out it was time to start assembling the mold that would create the form for the outside pieces of the locket. I went with a 1 inch difference between the layer size as it looked proportionally accurate to it's size. To separate the heart shapes to create the form I needed to add something in between the layers. I used toilet paper tubes to separate the layers. To figure out how tall the tub had to be, I did some math and figured out each tub had to be 3/4 of an inch tall for my ideal height of 4 inches. Once all the pieces were cut, I stacked them throughout the layers and found it was too tall. I decided to get rid of one tub to make it shorter. Once I figured out the height, I used a hot glue gun to glue the pieces to the hearts. Layer 1 is a both the 15 inch heart and 14 inch heart, layer 2 is 13 inches, layer 3 is 12 inches, layer 4 is 11 inches, and finally layer 5 was 10 inches
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When I was done with the mold, it was time to create the 3-D hearts for the locket. Before starting the paper mache to form the heart I had to cover the mold I made, so when this first heart is formed I could remove it and reuse the mold. To do this I covered the mold in saran wrap and paper mached over it, therefore it would stick the saran wrap rather than the cardboard underneath. Next I made a paper mache mixture using Elmer's glue, Modge Podge, and water, I was aiming for a consistency a littler thinner then the Elmer's glue.
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When the mold and paper mache mixture was prepped for use, I started ripping and cutting normal paper bags. The paper bags were what I used in place of normal newspaper or printer paper. For the first layer of the heart I was more focused on emphasizing the form of a heart, so I mostly tore up the paper bag to get a good first layer down. When the first layer was dry, I started cutting the pieces of the bag into shapes I felt would most emphasize the form of a heart while keeping the unity of the different shapes visually simple. Pictures captioned Example 1 and Example 2 are some basic shapes I cut out, I more often cut out Example shape 2 as it was easy to work around the mold. When I wanted to add a new strip of paper bag to the mold I would dip it into the mixture then rub the mixture on both sides of the strip making sure it absorbs some of it. The placing it on the mold and using my hand and a paint brush to help set in place where I wanted it to be. I repeated this process for all the stripes and all three layers, for both sides of the locket.
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While the locket sides were finishing drying I moved forward with working on the inside. I redrew a 15 inch heart cut it out and traced it twice. One the two new hearts I traced using a ruler I marked 1 inch inwards along the whole inside of both hearts. Then I connected the markings leaving me with a smaller heart shape, I cut the smaller heart shape out so then only a 1 inch outline of a heart was left with both hearts. Using the outlines I traced out six new outlines hearts so in total I would have eight. Next I separated the hearts into two groups of four then stacked the groups on top of each other and using hot glue, glued them together. Once they were glued together, I cut out strips of paper bag that were an inch wide to fit the width of the heart. I then paper mached the striped of paper to the heart to smooth the heart shape and bring more unity to it. I did this for both hearts.
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When the front side, back side, and insides were done drying it was time to put the outside part with an inside part. I started by trimming the access paper mache from the heart forms I created from the mold. Then I carefully lined up the heart form with an inside heart piece. Once I was happy with the placement I used hot glue to attach the two pieces together, I repeated the same steps for the other pieces as well. When they were attached I cut more stripes of paper bags to cover the unwanted texture left from the hot glue. (red arrows show difference)
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The next thing I had to accomplish was getting a working hinge out of cardboard. Referencing my final drawing of the locket, I knew I had to keep it within the 4 inch length and 2 inch diameter frame so the proportions would look accurate. Using cardboard I then cut a 4 x 6 inch rectangle, and made slits along the 4 inch side on the corrugation. Doing this gave me the ability to easily bend the cardboard in a curved shape as needed. I then cut the cardboard piece into three pieces, 2 pieces being the same width, and the last strip (middle) leaving it a little wider.
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Next I wanted to get an accurate round shape to the strips so the hinge would work more smoothly. I wrapped the strips around a toilet paper tube and taped them closed. Then to hide the ridges on the hinge I cut three strips of paper bag to fit each sized hinge ring. I used the paper mache mixture and a paint brush to apply the strip to the hinge rings. When the rings were dry I took them off the toilet paper tube.
Using the toilet paper tube I then drew two slightly bigger circles than the tube diameter. I then hot glued on of the circles directly onto the bottom of the tub. I then made a structure of two pieces of cardboard that when slid together they stay in place, until pulled apart. I did this by cutting a slit in one cardboard piece and hot gluing it to the inside of the tube. The I glued another little rectangle cardboard piece with no slit to the other second circle I drew and cut out earlier. |
When the mechanisms of the hinge were figured out I had to then attach it to the hearts to form the locket. I hot glued the two rings that were the same size to the heart I wanted to be the back of the locket, and hot glued the one bigger ring to the heart I wanted to be the front of the locket. Then I cut three more strips of paper bag to cover up the and smooth out the unity of the locket when it's connected to the hinge. I took the strips of paper dipped them in the paper mache mixture then using a paint brush I covered the hinge and the area where the hinge connects to the hearts.
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When it dried It was time to finally assemble the heart locket. I aligned the hinge of the locket and using the tub I pushed it into the hinge from the bottom, so that the part of the hinge that was glued to the tub would be secured. Then when the tub went through I put the other end circle on the tub and tested the hinge out, and then it was completed.
Experimentation
When I was deciding on how to create the mold for the heart I was initially going to cut many layers of hearts starting at 15 inches, and making each layer a 1/2 inch difference all the way up until I hit my goal height of 4 inches. However I realized two things with that process, one is that I would waste a lot of cardboard just to make a mold, and two it would be too time consuming to cut that much cardboard. I would have had to cut roughly 30 pieces of cardboard. Instead of cutting cardboard with a 1/2 inch difference, I cut cardboard hearts with a 1 inch difference. I played around with how I would structure the heart layers and how many I would want. Ultimately, after some trial and error I decided that ending the top of the heart at 10 inches looked more accurate proportionally for what I had visioned. I then cut a 14, 13, 12 , 11, and 10 inch hearts (I already had the 15 inch cut out as the base). However I found it difficult to make the same separation size in between the layers. So after playing with the structure I realized that, I could still achieve my desired look of the heart mold if I glued the 14 inch heart on top of the 15 inch heart and added a separate in between the rest of the layers. To separate the layers I used a toilet paper tube and cut it the size I needed.
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My biggest part of the project for experimenting was creating a working hinge. I have never made a "functional" art piece before, however when designing my original digital locket I wanted to have a better understanding of how a locket in general works. At first I had no Idea what to do, I knew from the planning stages and designing this locket that I wanted to be able to disassemble it for easier transportation or other reasons as needed. I knew the way to be able to disassemble it would be through the hinge, so that I found to be another challenge on top of creating a hinge itself.
I first did some research on how a hinge works, and studied some hinges around my home, such as the ones on our doors, and looking at the hinge of one of my own locket necklaces. When I figured out the idea of how it works, I had to figure out how to make it out of cardboard. I already knew the size I wanted it to be, however I wasn't sure how to craft it. I decided that I should make three separate rings. To form the rings I cut strips of cardboard, however I wanted it to shape into a circle. Playing around with the cardboard I realized the corrugation on the inside I could slit on one side, and it would be able to move in a more curve like manner. I then wrapped the three stripes of cardboard around a toilet paper tube and paper mached over the slits in the cardboard so there was a smooth texture.
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However when it was done drying I needed to figure out how to make the hinge removable from the locket's sides. i remembered from looking at how hinges work a screw is placed in between the rings to hold it in place. I realized I could just use the toilet paper tube as the "screw", since I used to shape the hinge rings it would be a perfect fit. I then made the bottom to the toilet paper tube and glued it so it looked like a thick smooth screw. However I still wanted the ability to remove the screw part of the hinge. I still had the other side of the "screw" open. I figured I could make a structure then when put together they would stay put. I knew one simple way to do this, I cut to rectangle shaped cardboard pieces, then with the longer cardboard piece I cut a slit and slid the other cardboard piece in and it stayed in play. That little slit in the longer cardboard piece was my solution to being able to remove the "screw" from the hinge to dissemble it. So to finish the "screw" I glued the piece with the slit inside the tube, and the other piece on the end of the circle.
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Critique
Comparing my Locket Model to Claes Oldenburg's Clothespin, I instantly see how different they are. In terms of the materials for the construction of my sculpture, I used a combination of cardboard, and paper bags. I cut, stacked, and glued cardboard together to form the physical sculpture, and used the paper bags as paper mache to add more 3-dimensional form of a heart as well to cover up the rough edges left from the cardboard. In contrast, Oldenburg's materials were very different, his materials consisted of Corten steel, and concrete. The specific corten steel he Oldenburg used as it is weather resistant, which was ideal considering he wanted to display his sculpture outside. However mine was made out of cardboard not because of the environment it was placed in, but because a requirement of the project was using cardboard similar materials. Another similarity is that both Oldenburg's and my sculpture size emphasize an "everyday" object. Although the idea of my locket based on appearance is a replica of any heart shaped locket. It is actually a model from a previous product design project, where I designed a digital locket. The points of emphasis in Oldenburg's work is the form and the movement that is created due to how the Clothespin is displayed. The form is a main point of emphasis because of the enormous size his sculpture and the area of space it takes up. The movement comes from the way in which he displayed Clothespin at a vertical angle, guiding the viewer's eye further up the sculpture. Similarly, my Locket Model sculpture one of its main points of emphasis is the form, the form of which is to replicate and depict a previous design idea for a product. Another main aspect of my sculpture is the unity, and how the form is created by the shapes within the sculpture, and the shapes shown from the paper mache, ultimately unity is shown through the well thought out composition of the locket. The purpose of the creation of the Clothespin was to democratize art, his sculpture was visually "available" to all viewers as it was very tall. While the purpose of the creation of my sculpture Locket Model, was a relief of my thoughts on how I would imagine my digital heart locket to look (not to scale).
Reflection
This relief sculpture project helped refine my critical thinking skills as an artist. The design of the Heart Locket looks simple to the viewers eye, however most people do not often think about the ideas, and process that goes into make a working product, or in my case a openable, and detachable sculpture. There were main aspects to this project that I had to really think about before doing. The first aspect was the weight of my sculpture. Since this was going to be made of cardboard and have two sides connected by a significantly smaller cardboard hinge. I had to consider if the weight would pull or skew things out of place, this challenge led me to coming up with the idea of creating a mold. Yet making sure I was able to reuse the mold a second time. The second aspect that was crucial to the design of my sculpture was a working hinge, that could be taken apart. Making a hinge, especially out of cardboard I had to put way more thought into it, than what I initially realized. Not only did I want it to function in a specific way, I wanted it to blend in with the unity of the sculpture. Once I figured out how to create the hinge, and when I finished it I felt very accomplished. As this hinge is what not only added to the "functional" part of my sculpture, but it added to the unity of my sculpture depicting a Heart Locket. Referring back to my inspiration Claes Oldenburg, as mentioned previously his work Clothespin was created as an artistic democratized sculpture of an everyday object. While my sculpture isn't meant for democratized art, my sculpture was more so a thoughtful artistic model of a potential "everyday " product. Oldenburg redesigned and created an already invented product, however while the shape of my locket has been invented well before, it is a representational model of my idea of digital locket. Again as mentioned repeatedly this project is a connection back to my product design project, but rather then focusing on the research of who target audience of this project is meant for, or what solutions and or products already exists. This sculpture was a relief of how I imagined my product to look, and somewhat physical function. I hope that when others view my sculpture that they consider the amount of critical thinking, and problem solving that was done in order to achieve the final composition of my Locket Model.
ACT
- My inspiration was Claes Oldenburg, he focused his sculptures on artistically enlarging everyday objects. My sculpture was an enlarged model of a previous product design project where I designed a locket.
- Oldenburg's approach to his sculptures was creating objects and displaying them, so viewers can observe and question the creation of the sculpture and the environment it is displayed in.
- I came to the realization that people often don't question the reasoning and thought put behind everyday objects, until something significantly changes it.
- My idea behind my research and inspiration was to display an enlarged version of a concept regarding relationships from a previous project.
- That artists may not always have a specific meaning or right meaning behind the creation of a piece, sometimes it is open to the viewers thoughts and stories of they the artists created that specific piece.
Bibliography
“Anne Truitt Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/truitt-anne/#:~:text=Truitt. Accessed 23 Feb. 2024.
The Art Story. “Claes Oldenburg.” The Art Story, 2016, www.theartstory.org/artist/oldenburg-claes/.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Claes Oldenburg | American Artist.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 24 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Claes-Oldenburg.
The Art Story. “Claes Oldenburg.” The Art Story, 2016, www.theartstory.org/artist/oldenburg-claes/.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Claes Oldenburg | American Artist.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 24 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Claes-Oldenburg.