Suspended Sculpture

I really don't feel these are working, which is disappointing. I'm finding that I'm coming up with ideas without trying them out in a practical way - obviously once you actually make a sculpture like this and photograph it, the process will lead in an unexpected direction. In this case I don't think it was a good direction... The domestic background is especially difficult for me to work in because I'm finding that it seems irrelevant and skews the meaning of the image. The work is no longer about form, it is about the uncanny, which is not just a deviation but a major change of track. I'm not going to persue this sculpture idea just yet, but Bernhard Blume's action shots are intriguing and create a similar abstraction through movement rather than this staged, deliberate stillness which I find quite stagnant and suffocating.

Helmick and Stuart Schechter

"Fata Morgana: an optical phenomenon that creates the illusion of water, often with inverted reflections of distant objects, and results from distortion of light by alternate layers of hot and cool air. Also called mirage."

Pae White

Pae White's suspended sculptures are simple and hold a humble elegance which I'm drawn to in terms of presentation and concept. A white space seems to be typical of most suspended installations - though I was pleased with my work last year in a dark studio, photographing minimally lit objects so they popped out from a blackness and created an more ominous and stylized mood to White's sculptures. I think it's important to consider this idea from the point of view of a photomedia artist - there will be different things to consider if my final artworks are to be photos of the sculpture, rather than the installation itself. Also to note - the strings in these installations are visible, though not obvious, and still they do not detract from the magic of seemingly floating objects.

Gerda Steiner & Jorg Lenzlinger

Brainforest - a booklet documentation of Steiner and Lenzlinger's sculptural installations including The Falling Garden (below), installed at the 50th Venice Bienalle (2003).

 

I'd kill to see this installation in the flesh, the scale is breathtaking and I imagine walking through the 'Falling Garden' would be magical. I'm ambitiously considering creating a similar suspended sculpture made of everyday, mundane objects or perhaps eggshells and other fragile materials, hoping to create a sentimental, nostalgic mood while also commenting on the inadequacy of keepsakes as a gateway to memory and experience: what we own does not necessarily compare to who we are and I believe objects and heirlooms should play a less important role in our idea of self than they do in today's age. Also a self-reflective observation on the ability of a photograph to capture truth - a photographic print is, after all, only a record of the exterior surface of someone or something. It gives limited insight into anything below the surface, just as memorabilia can only bring back so much of a person who has died, or a memory which has faded.