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.

Painting...

This is the continuation of Lindsay's wall painting, he decided to paint more than one figure to create a scene. It is now decided that we are going include the painting as part of our final piece.

This is one of the garments that we dipped in wax. It was then painted in different shades of blue to highlight the folds and to give it a kind of "mouldy" look. The blue also fits the painting and is how we plan to paint the clothes for the final piece.

Wax and Plaster Clothes

This image shows the effect that wax had on the clothes. It proved very successful as the was allows you to mould the clothes into certain shapes while it is still drying even enabling the items of clothing to stand up on their own. Our next plan of action is to practice painting into these garments in preparation for the clothes we will actually include in the final piece.

These images show the effect that plaster has on the clothes. We think that the textures are interesting and show age and wear which is what we are aiming for. However, these pieces are very hard to shape. For now wax looks like the most hopeful way of hardening the clothes.

The deconstructed chair, reconstructed as the Old Guitar.

This is the finished guitar complete with strings.

Through out the process of making it we only used the wood from the chair, nails, screws and string. We also managed to find the back of the chair to use as a decorative guitar neck which was made sturdier by sawing a chair leg in half and screwing both the halves together.

We decided that even though the guitar wasn't going to be played the strings were necessary because without them there can be no music and therefore the blind guitarists passion isn't in the piece.

PVA'd Clothes. Interesting.

Clothes Experiment

As we intend to use clothes in our final piece it seemed sensible to practice making them hard. The clothes were mixed with PVA glue to make the solid and then put on a "washing line" for them to dry. We are thinking about working into these with paint.

While searching the studio again we came across some blue fabric and are considering the idea of constructing our own garments from this by working it around a manikin, then when the clothes have been hardened it will look as though the wearer is invisible.

Painting Workshop

This is a painting that Lindsay produced on the wall during the paint workshop on the 6th. It shows a homeless man from around Huddersfield and is done in the style of Picassos "Blue Period". It is undecided as of yet whether this will be included in our final reconstruction.

"The Old Guitar"

This is the start to our "Old Guitar" using two seats of the chair to create this basic body shape and three chair backs placed on top of each other to create the depth. We are considering using either 2 or 4 legs for the neck and plan on shaping the tuning pegs out of the wooden "bars" of the back of the chair.

Inspired by... Julia Griffiths Jones.

Julia Griffiths Jones is an artist who specialises in textiles based projects, the one that particularly interested us as a group was her collection called "Stories In The Making" which consists of wire structures. One in particular is this one in which she made clothes, this could be a possible idea for our project.

Inspired by... Bill Woodrow.

Bill Woodrow
Bill Woodrow is a useful link for our project as he takes objects that he finds in skips and junkyards and makes them into art. His sculpture "Twin-Tub With Guitar" is relevant to our own project.

Project Update

Throughout the starting week we have discussed deconstruction and deconstructed the work. We talked about Picasso's blue period, the position of the piece, what was going on at the time it was painted and the title. We also decided on the theme of Poverty for our final piece, looking at the fact that the mans material possessions [IE: his guitar and the clothes on his back] are of more value than the person himself.

After a talk with Bob we continued to look at the objects and using actual clothing in our piece. So we gathered together clothes from home and looked around charity shops for other clothes and a guitar. It was a huge success when we managed to find a child's toy guitar which we could cast or put plaster over. The plan with the clothes is to cover them in either wax or PVA glue to shape them and then let them harden. We also discussed painting into the clothes to make them appear more worn and aged.

After looking at the groups photography another concept was exposed: the idea of blocked of areas, areas so full of danger that they have been blocked off so that people can't enter them. This could be an idea to include in our piece. EG: barbed wire, fencing, seals, padlocks etc.

An exploration of the studio introduced a new idea to us. We found fragments of old chairs and found that the shapes of the seats and the backs created a basic guitar shape. We are planning the try and make a full guitar out of the pieces, the fact that the chairs were both useless and worthless fits the theme and also shows the value of the old mans guitar.

Pablo Picasso.

The Old Guitarist (1903-1904).