Finalising

The shadows cast by the spotlight on the strings.

Today was the final official day of the project.
We mainly experimented with sound today as we feel that it would be interesting in our project. We attempted to tune the childs guitar which we originaly bought to cast but it just didnt have the sound that we were after. So we went over to the music department and asked one the guitarist there to tune his guitar for us in a soundproof room. There wasn't anyone available to assist us with editing the sound so we plan on trying again tomorrow, if not the sound won't be used at all.
We also experimented with lighting today and settled on on spotlight for the source of light. We had to make sure that it was far enough up the wall to not count as part of the artwork.
We also painting around the painting slightly with a roller as to make it match the circle on the floor more.

Finishing with the strings

The main task today was to finish stringing the piece together by attaching the strings from the painting and guitar [six from each nail to represent the strings of the guitar] to the clothes. We put six nails, all at different heights on the clothing sculpture and then tied each of the strings of the painting to them to create a web of string.

As a group we are very pleased with the final outcome of our project. The next step for tomorrow is looking into sound and lighting. We are going to experiment with a Dictaphone and attempt to record someone tuning a guitar. We discussed lighting and thought that the idea of candles would fit the project and theme perfectly. However there are matters of Health and Safety to think about which may mean that we'll have to temporarily have candles for photographic "wish" purposes and compromise by just having a spotlight. Over all we think that lighting will help bring our piece to life as we imagine the shadows created by the strings would look very effective.

The Project Continues...

After a few confusing days we returned to the project and decided to go with the original painting of the figures.

After experimenting with the clothes on the floor we also came to the conclusion that we should use all three of the garments made but with them all put together as one object rather than having them as three separate objects. With this decided we could the continue with the painting of the floor. At first we just painted our floor area grey to cover all the imperfections that had been left from the last projects. We then went on the paint a large circle like a spotlight for the clothes to go on. It was done with a roller in white paint and then worked into again with blue paint.

The grey floor once we had painted it.

The process of painting the spotlight.

The finished spotlight.

Once we had decided on our floor space we could finally attach the guitar to the wall and begin to tie the strings to the painting. We decided to hammer the nails into the figures' eyes to symbolise the Old Guitarist's blindness. The strings show the importance of sound and music to the blind man and how they make up for his lack of sight, it is therefore ironic that once the strings are attached to the clothes they will be straight like light which creates sight. The tightness of the strings also represents tension.

When looking at the photo, the piece looks quite eerie as it looks as though the guitar is hanging by itself in mid air.

Emmas Sketchbook

Change of Plan...

After an in depth discussion about the project as a whole we felt that it may be necessary to change the direction of the piece slightly.

We decided that the style of painting that Lindsay had produced on the wall was too "ketch" when it was intended to be more serious. So it was left to decide whether he should do another painting or continue working into the original. Lindsay had come up with the idea of trying to paint the Old Guitarist in an abstract style using simple shapes. He is going to practice this style of painting on a huge board before deciding on whether to include it.

Another point that was brought up in the discussion was the amount of clothing pieces used in the final artwork. Some of the group feel that the whole outfit would look effective while others think that there would be too many garments. To see the effect of these ideas we plan on experimenting with different numbers of clothes and where to place them as the whole of the floor space is free for the exhibition.

An idea that seems popular in the group is the idea of creating a web of string that comes from the painting and guitar to connect the clothes to them. This will symbolise the importance of the strings on the guitar and the importance of hearing and music to the blind guitarist. It will also make the piece feel older as we will be trying for a "cobweb" effect.

This is the finished wall painting:

Sketchbooks

These are a selection of pages from some of the groups sketchbooks.

Waxed Clothes

These are some photos of the actual clothes we plan on using for the final piece.
The black shirt was hand sewn by Chris out of recycled fabric. We dipped it in wax and then moulded it into a suitable shape. Once it was dried we painted it using white acrylic to make it look more distressed.
The checked shirt was bought from a charity shop, it was dipped in wax and shaped. However the group feels that it needs more wax added to make it look less patchy.

What next? We plan to wax another item of clothing to make a full outfit and then paint into the garments more.