As I mentioned my resent post, we discussed with Conan about our piece.

 

Conan had a lot to say about it especially about his disagreement about our tree and using the paper mache materials  in a different way. But we believe that the tree is or focal point, the element that attracts the audience at the very beginning and engages them to interact with it.

 

As I said before, the tree represents to norm that is taken for granted and also the life of Lincoln.

 

So to link the two points together; Conan’s objection and idea, with our significance and original aim, I came across this idea and rather fond memory.

 

Clive Kay. 

 

 

Clive Kay is a self taught artist born in Zimbabwe.  Later in life he moved to South Africa then a year later to England where he became highly influenced by David Shepard’s work, and now resides in Canada.

 

He is fascinated with wild life, especially from the African plains, and thus commissioned by the Walt Disney Company to paint the Collector’s edition of “The Tree of Life” for the opening of The Animal Kingdom park in the Spring of 1998.  This is when I first became interested with Kay. I met him in person when I went to the Animal Kingdom the week it opened and became overwhelmed by the beauty of the “Tree of Life”, to the point when I had my parents purchase a print of his painting, lucky for us, he was there too and he signed it for us. He is truly an inspiration, even at that time for a child of 6.

 

As you can see in these images below, I took when I went the Animal Kingdom in Florida, the animals are carved into to the wood of tree (admittedly some are caved then place on the tree), maybe for our piece we can do something like this, not as busy, but a few elements of Lincoln that we miss, like the architecture, could be moulded into the tree and become part of the visual element, maybe even part of the slightly tactile element too. It certainly doesn’t go unrecognised at the Animal Kingdom, this could even attract the audience better here too.

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Website

Jes, Brent (unknown) “Frames and Mats”Online: http://www.brentjes.com/mats.htm (accessed: 11th March 2012).

Kay, Clive (2001) “The Fine Art of Clive Kay” Online: http://www.clivekay-artist.com/Default.htm (accessed: 11th March 2012).

After we spoke to Dan I decided to do some research on paper mache tree artists, here is the second of two that I found.

 

Jonni Good

 

Jonni Good is a paper mache sculpture artist who works with a new recipe of paper mache, called “Paper Mache Clay”, a.k.a: “home-made air-dried cellulose-reinforced polymer clay”.

 

Here are the ingredients;

• Cheap toilet paper (measure the wet paper pulp, and use 1.24 cups – some rolls contain more paper than needed)
• 1 cup Joint compound from the hardware store (get “regular,” not “fast set” or “light”.)
• 3/4 cup Elmer’s Glue-all
• 1/2 cup White Flour
• 2 tablespoons Linseed Oil

Step 1. Fill a high-sided bowl with warm water. Remove the toilet paper from the roll and throw it into the water. Push down on the paper to make sure all of it gets wet.

 

Step 2. Then pick up the paper and squeeze out as much water as you can. Pour the water out of the bowl and put your paper mass back in.

 

Step 3. You will want to break the paper into chunks about 1″ across. This will allow your mixer to move around the pieces and break them apart.

 

Step 4. Add all the ingredients to the bowl and mix, using an electric mixer. The mixer will pull the fibers of the toilet paper apart and turn it into pulp. Continue to mix for at least 3 minutes to make sure all the paper has been mixed in with the other ingredients. If you still see some lumps, use a fork or your fingers (with the mixer turned off!) to break them apart, and then mix some more.

 

With this recipe she creates beautiful and amazing sculptures like the ones below…

 

 

 

 

But the main image that caught my eye for the tree was her “Wedding Table Center Piece”, even though it’s not ten feet tall  it has a certain quirkiness about it and it is made from the paper mache clay which will be perfect for our tree because it will reinforce it strength wise.

 

 

I believe a mix between the two artists I found for the tree will be perfect. By using Holten’s height and amount of branches with Good’s Clay and quirkiness we will be able to make a secure perfect white tree to hang each of out “Leaves” for the project.

 

Bibliography

 

Website

Good, Jonni (2005) “Ultimate Paper Mache – tutorials, ideas, conversation…”, Online: http://ultimatepapermache.com/ (accessed: 18th February 2012).

After we spoke to Dan I decided to do some research on paper mache tree artists, here is the first of two that I found.

 

Katie Holden

 

Katie Holden is a visual artist who works, as her biography states “In the world”. It goes on to say “Katie is motivated by cultural, political and social circumstances. Through her drawings, sculptures, books and ephemeral actions she makes poetic alterations to the everyday. She is interested in creating works that contribute to an awareness of ‘place’ while reflecting the vulnerabilities implicit in everyday life. At the root of Katie’s practice is a curiosity with life’s systems. Her work is an ongoing investigation of the inextricable relationship between man and the natural world in the age of the Anthropocene”.(http://homepage.mac.com/katie.holten/Katie.biography.html)

 

I find this image rather interesting, her sculpture called “The Black Tree”, as seen below…

 

 

 

I know this is a black tree when our Site Specific piece is going to be white to give a blank canvas to the “Leaves” which are hanging from it, but the actual height and shape of the piece gives me inspiration on how we could build our tree.

 

“The Black Tree” is made from newspaper, cardboard, wood, wire and duct tape. Three of these materials we are thinking about using for ours, not a bad start.

 

I like this piece because not only is it quite big but also because it has many branches yet also rather realistic. This is one way to go for our piece, but much more research needs to be done first before we can actually start making our tree.

 

Bibliography

 

Website

Holten, Katie (2005) The Black Tree, Online: http://homepage.mac.com/katie.holten/katie.html (accessed: 18th Febuary 2012).

 

Wrights & Sites, four people who “explore and celebrate space and place through site-specific performance” (http://www.mis-guide.com/index.html) by creating a series of Mis-Guided Tours and  Mis-Guides they create different perspectives on how we make our way around a city.

 

Mis-Guides are actual published guide books that offer alternative routes to explore the city, “they aim to help people explore cities in a completely alternative and personal way.”  Here is an example of what the do, it is called  A Mis-Guide  to Milton Keynes.

 

 

I think they’re quite interesting in their ways, I want to show the things that people don’t usually notice through images and audio recordings, they take the audience to the actual site. I would like to make the tree into a type of Mis-Guide, fore it too an alternative way of seeing the city, but this is for Lincoln!

 

Bibliography

 

Online video/Youtube

Wrights & Sites (2005) Subverting the City: A Mis-Guide to Milton Keynes, dir. Dan Edelstyn, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6nDUsuOOs4 (accessed: 15 February 2012).

Website

Wrights & Sites (2008) Wrights & Sites, Online: http://www.mis-guide.com/index.html (accessed: 15 February 2012).

I next took my search to YouTube, where I came across a rather interesting video. Their location reminded me a lot of the Usher Gallery gardens. This video is of Stephan Koplowitz: Task Force  performing  “Liquid Landscapes” in Darlington. I found this video rather clever how they appear and disappear in a blink of an eye, and the fact they represented water, maybe we could do something like this but representing Lincoln?

 

 

After further research I came across his website which shows clips of a few of his past projects, and “Revealed” looks rather intriguing. The one main problem about this piece is that it could be performed anywhere in the world, that was it’s design plan, but maybe we could twist this form and fixate it on Lincoln.  Showing the audience a different way of seeing Lincoln and seeing if they recognize it. This will also require further  research…

 

 

http://www.koplowitzprojects.com/revealed.html

 

Bibliography

 

Online Video/YouTube

Koplowitz, Stephan (2009) Stephan Kolowitz: Task Force UK 2009 Performance Excerpts: Dartington (site-specific performance), Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdiUNTCQTfY&feature=related (accessed 31 January 2012).

Website

Koplowitz, Stephan (2010) Stephan Koplowitz Projects, Online: http://www.koplowitzprojects.com/index.html (accessed: 31 January 2012).