I wanted to create a post that contains the many ideas I have for practical work I want to try to do in Unit 1.3. I will discuss these during my tutorial with Caroline today:

JONEKERSHOEK NATURE RESERVE AND MOUNTIANS AS INSPIRATION:

Over the next two months I aim to explore (running and hiking) the following mountain peaks and valleys near my house as I draw inspiration for practical work for unit 1.3:

Sculptural/3 dimensional work

A) Fired vessels combined with fabric and fibre:

I am planning to combine some fibre and fabric with the pots by treading them through holes. The idea is to let my pots be inspired by the pots made by indigenous Khoisan tribes who lived in this area before European settlers came here. I would then like to add traditional european stitch-craft to the pots (specifically focussing on ‘mending stitches’) to represent my european ancestry and the idea of expressing my desire to repair, mend and reconcile our interconnection as humans as well as repair our deteriorating interconnection with nature (using naturally dyed fabrics and fibre). Resolution of my research can potentially be achieved through these mediums and methods as well as a resolving my own inner conflict regarding the unequal situation in my country. In the process of expressing my confusion and questions, I hope to also visually express reconciliation and a desire to repair. I will elaborate on this exploration in another post in the near future. Artist Nicole McLaughlin is also an inspiration here.

Some inspiration for this project:

http://contemporarybasketry.blogspot.com/2023/10/combined-materials.html (sourced on 13 March 2024)

B) Figurative sculptures:

I would like to continue working with the medium of clay and explore ceramic sculpture and work with the human figure. Figurative sculpture has always been a very powerful artform that speak to me. I remember visiting the Musee D’Osray in France and seeing one of Edgar Dega’s sculpture (see below). It captured me and I loved its scale and rawness. I was also intrigued by the tulle skirt and would like to bring in some fabric and fibre (naturally dyed) into the sculpture.

I am also inspired by the sculpture of Christina Cordova, a contemporary artist and sculpting instructor from Puerto Rico whose work evokes emotion and tells stories.

C) Drawing:

Drawing has always been one of my passions. One that I have neglected the past few months due to my obsession with my material investigation. I always knew that I would return to it and I don’t regret putting it on the back burner for a while. I feel like I am ready to drive into gestural figurative studies inspired by my subconscious mind and time spent in nature. I have experimented with abstract backgrounds using the materials I have processed and therefore directly links with nature. I would however like to return to the figure in charcoal and draw over these backgrounds while intuitively working with charcoal, my handmade chalk pastels and natural earth pigment as a watercolour paint. I look forward to doing these and I already have many ideas. I will use my runs and hikes in the mountains of Stellenbosch as inspiration as they always serve as an immersive experience from which creativity flows. I will need to work on learning to trust my intuition, silence the inner critique, self doubt and perfectionism.

I would like to frame these 2 dimensional works (hopefully without glass) and use a wooden frame which I will cover with quilted and stitched fabric and fibre using repair stitching which will serve as the same metaphor mentioned before – to speak of a longing to repair, mend and reconcile interconnection.

Some artists that inspire me at the moment:

ART MOVEMENTS THAT INSPIRE ME:

Magic realism:

The term was used by Franz Roh in his book Nach Expressionismus: Magischer Realismus(After Expressionism: Magic Realism).

In Central Europe magic realism was part of the reaction against modern or avant-gardeart, known as the return to order, that took place generally after the First World War. Magic realist artists included Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio and others in Italy, and Alexander Kanoldt and Adolf Ziegler in Germany. Magic realism is closely related to the dreamlike depictions of surrealism and neo-romanticism in France. The term is also used of certain American painters in the 1940s and 1950s including Paul Cadmus, Philip Evergood and Ivan Albright.

In 1955 the critic Angel Flores used the term magic realism to describe the writing of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez, and it has since become a significant if disputed literary term.

Symbolism:

Symbolism began as a literary movement in France in the 1880s during a period of enormous change and upheaval in Europe. The term first came into circulation in 1886 when the poet Jean Moréas published his ‘Symbolist Manifesto’ in the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro. Moréas attacked naturalism, urging writers and artists to be more evocative and suggestive in their response to nature. Although the work of writers such as Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Paul Verlaine (1844-96), Stéphane Mallarmé (1841-98) and Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91) had very different styles, what  united them was their rejection of the literary conventions of the day.

Symbolist art shifted the emphasis from the direct representation of nature to the world of the imagination. Instead of describing something with precise, realistic detail or stating facts they used personal metaphors and symbols, evoking a meaning or feeling instead. Or as Mallarmé explained in a letter, the idea was, “to paint not the thing but the effect it produces”. This marked a shift away from the prevailing naturalist and realist approaches of the time, and was partly a reaction to the increasing industrialisation and scientific advances they saw around them. Symbolism offered an antidote, not only to scientific uncertainties, but to the materialism of industrial Europe. It rejected reality, offering an escape into the world of dreams and visions, spiritualism and mythology.