Project 4 - Critique Results

We had our first critique for this project last week, as I expected people didn't really get my piece without prompts from me, but that is largely because it is just not finished to a stage where people might get it.

I had two drawing manikins holding up a marionette puppet I had quickly made, I used the manikins simply because I did not have anything more suitable to use, and the idea was two personalities fight for control over one body, which was the puppet. People got the control idea, but they saw the manikins as outside influences - parents, governments, etc
I also had some samples of boiled leather I had done and my little leather mock ups displayed, but people could not get any idea of a concept from that.
Most of the suggestions people had were things I was intending already - larger/life sized pieces for the real piece, and more development of the concept.

Overall I am not disappointed with the results, I knew it was too early for people to really get my concept from my mock ups, I just need to keep working my concept into the piece and develop both further.

Project 4 - Boiling Leather Tests

In medieval times a very common way of making armour was to boil vegetable tanned leather, and it would become hard and stiff. This was basically done by soaking the leather in luke warm or cold water for at least ten minutes, to allow it to absorb the water and soften slightly. Then by dipping it in water kept at just below boiling point for about one to two minutes, maybe more or less depending how hard and brittle it is to become. Leather boiled for longer will become harder and more stiff, but it will also become more brittle.
I found good instructions and some back ground information here, thank you to whoever wrote this article.

I tested 9 small strips of leather (three 5mm thick and 6 2mm thick) soaked for the same length of time (about 10 minutes) and boiled for differing lengths of time to see how stiff and hard each would get. They range from a fairly soft 20 sec thin one that still mostly holds it shape to a solid 90 sec thick one that will only allow limited movement with some force applied.

This was a very small mock up of one of my ideas, to give me a vague idea of how it would look in 3D. I was quite pleased with the result, especially with the way the edges curled up, as it gave the piece more of a flowing, sculptural look.

So naturally I did a slightly larger mock up too see how the thinner leather would hold up to more weight, and how it would react in the way it hangs and curls. I added a small amount of copper chainmail to the bottom because chainmail is an interesting way of extending the piece without having to buy and order in more leather, which is out of my price range at the moment. As you can see, the mock up is a bit too big for the wooden doll I've put it on...

The leather hasn't curled up quite as pleasantly, but with some encouragement during the drying process I think I could achieve the desired result, but not if I have to do this in the thicker leather, which is what I will probably have to do, as this leather is too... uh, floppy. Even at this size it's already looking less like armour than an odd fashion garment.

Project 4: Concept Development

Another way of looking at my concept is the way both the personalities fight each other for some control over the one body. This has reminded me of a marionette, with one body and two people fighting over who gets to pull the strings, and even when one person does have control, they still have the other next to them trying to tell them what to do.

This is Bob, a quick marionette I created out of a few sheets of paper, some string and a set of chop sticks. This is a simple 3 string marionette, however I would like to make a more complex one when time and resources allow, to see how difficult it is to make one, and to see how one would move. This is a possible influence for my final piece, as it could represent the body, then I could find a way to represent two personalities fighting over the controls. I have some vague, half formed ideas for this so far, but nothing solid enough to try or test.

So far I am looking at this side - the struggle between personalities - as a separate idea to the protection idea, however I will look into ways of combining the two, showing both a conflicted and symbiotic relationship between the two personalities.

Project 4 - Initial Design Ideas

This was the first idea I had for the sculptural armour influenced piece. It would be made of boiled and hardened leather, as armour often was in the medieval era. It would be a lot of leather though, and I would need something big enough to mould the leather onto to set after boiling it.













This is an idea I had for an installation piece, where I would create a whole room of soft pink lighting and soft comfortable cushions, with a "buffer" around it of darkness that you had to walk through to get into the room. The darkness would be the bad things that need to be escaped, the room itself would be talking about my friend's alt, who gives my friend shelter from the darkness of the world when she needs it. The cozy pink lit room would be the safe haven my friend creates for herself inside herself when the world becomes too much for her. This would give people a sense of being inside a little world - inside her mind.

This would be two masks, each decorated to reflect a personality, which are stuck together to become one piece. A two sided mask as such.
I find this imagery kind of creepy, partially because the idea of someone having "two faces" implies one is traitorous rather than having two personalities.

These two were quick ideas I thought might work, but upon seeing them on paper I decided they were not really expressing the concept how I would like to see it expressed. The first (left) is a robe like design with solid leather shoulder pieces, and a long draping fabric merging with the leather and coming down to form the robe part. The second (right) is based on a merging of an evening dress and scale armour - armour made up from lots of sclae pieces of leather or metal, in this case leather - the idea being to show the two personalities
in one garment. However at this point I want to give an impression of inside and outside as well as two.

This would be made from one piece of thick (approximately 5mm)
leather to create the shape and give the impression of armour,
and would be lined with some soft material that is pleasant to touch,
possibly baby goat (kid) skin, as I already have some of them that
need using. I have created a circular open area above where the
heart would be to give people the impression of seeing passed the
thick armour outside and into the heart of the piece. This piece
would be hanging free rather than placed on a stand, as the stand
would get in the way of people "looking into it's heart

This was based off the shoulder armour,
but curving around the back of the neck so people get the impression of looking into the piece with all the openings. It would be thick leather with a soft lining to represent the protective outside hiding a soft, sensitive inside.

Beginning of Semester Two - Project 4

Over the holidays I have done little in the way of actual work, but lots of thinking, and I have come up with a number of possible ideas for visualising the concept. I will put up my various ideas in my next post.

Basically my project is based around a close friend of mine, who has two personalities and minor schizophrenia, caused by abuse when she was an infant/toddler. I want to portray her how I see her, not as a broken person with mental problems, but as a wonderful pair of personalities who, when they can get along, protect each other and keep each other company when each needs it most. Others have called her second personality an interloper, who should not be allowed to "steal" her body, however I see her more as a protector of the original personality, she shelters her and gives her a means of hiding away from the world when she needs to.