The Human Condition

The Human Condition is a broad topic that will be continuously pondered and analysed from all perspectives. Most typically this is used in the context of subjects such as moral concerns and the meaning of life or purpose.

In depth explanations into it can be found at these websites -

• What is the human condition?
• What exactly is the human condition?

Over the summer we were given a project on the theme of Identity. Also being such a broad subject, I focused on self identity and then the identity crisis.
I filled my sketchbook with many pages on the subject. Below I will provide all the research I found in the order of my sketchbook.

• Identity/Identity Formation 
• Another Definition
• The Need for a Sense of Identity
• The Psychology of Stuff and Things
• Defining Identity and Purpose
• Psychological Identity and Identity Crisis
• Self Identity, Sense of Self - Values, Purpose and Meaning
• Indentity and the Search for a Common Human Purpose

Back to The Human Condition, in my sketchbook I drew many a mind map to simplifying the subject down to one area that I could make an art piece from.

Focusing on my own personal experiences - I then looked into the concept of loss.

Sometimes through the loss of family, friends, possessions or even physical - we end up with this feeling of being broken. 

It was then that I came up with the idea of emotion/psychological scars.

But what if we could really see there 'scars' ?

Also scars can heal eventually or they fester and never heal - how would I show that?

Through the ones that are healed/healing, how would I convey the idea of this transformation being for the better. Changing our very selves into something better?

It was then that I remembered a Japanese technique that someone had mentioned in first year - Kintsugi, the art of transforming something old and broken into something new using a special lacquer of gold, silver and platinum.

• Kintsugi: The Art of Broken Pieces
• Kintsugi: Repairing Broken Ceramic With Gold or Gold Effect

Due to being ill a lot during the semester, I spent a lot of time at home and so missed out on some of the resourceful workshops.

One which I could do at home was oil painting. So I started a self portrait that best reflected my current mood with being ill and life.

In the past I had only dabbled a little in oil paints. I found them very easy to use but didn't know that the paint would change over a matter of days or weeks and take up to a week to dry between layers.

But it was a fun experience.

I started off with a penciled outline and shadow areas drawn in.

I then moved into painting in a background wash before building up layers.

Eventually after many hours of layers, the pencil lines were beginning to vanish.

I began to add in the shadow that was cast on my face

 Personally I think it still needs a lot of work and I will continue to work on it.

Next I moved on to a reflection of one of the university grounds windows.

Sadly I forgot to document each step.

When I started to feel better and finally got my own table in the studio - I decided I was going to do a face mold. 

I searched online for tutorials and found a few that could help me with the new materials I accumulated.

• How to Cast a Face in Plaster
• How to make a face cast on yourself

With the help of my trusty assistant, I was able to not only make a face mold of myself but also made one of him to.

Even with a thick layer of Vaseline, some of his facial hair had bonded with the mod rock.

From the outside you could feel the plaster heat up and harden within a matter of moment but underneath the barrier kept our skin cool and moisturized.

But left you with speckles of plaster all over your face, clothing and anywhere else it dripped.

So after they had dried and we peeled them off. I left them to dry for a further day before making an actual cast.

I then used daz air drying clay and rolled it out into a flat thin layer. Then I lined the mold with clingfilm and lay the clay in the mold. Patting it in as well as I could and added more to build up a thicker layer to prevent it from cracking when I pulled it out.

I left it flat on the surface and waited for gravity to play its part as it dried.

  After a day I pulled it out and found the clay hadn't fully dried but that was to my advantage as I could cut out the nose holes and carve more detail into the face.

As you can see in the photo above and below, the clingfilm had mangled the males face.

As the clay hadn't fully dried, the cast was very delicate and I had to be gentle with re-shaping it.

By re-defining the features, it now looked more life like.

Moving onto his beard and mustache, I added more clay.

Once I was happy, I left them both to dry for a few days while I worked with modelling plaster.

I wanted to see how the two mediums would look by the end result.

Having to peel the mold off was both saddening but also fun.

All the facial hair that had been in the mold now clung to the plaster and any air bubbles now left imperfections in the plaster but the most important part of this process was a success.

With the modelling plaster drying so quickly, I was able to create a thick layer instead of a solid mold.

Sadly the next face was not thick enough and kept breaking as I moved it around and carved into it.

When I next work with plaster, I will repeat the process I had originally started with - which was a small amount of plaster at a time. Instead I used the rest and rushed it - it became lumpy and useless, so I had to bin it.

I am still happy with the results, my first attempt with plaster and two faces to work with.

Now I had four faces in two different mediums to play with.

I decided to work more with the plaster as I liked the brittleness of it.

To get rid of the imperfections, I covered them in poly filler and then went back and worked into them.

I realized by the end that I had totally forgotten to carve the beard and so I used some clay instead to make up for my mistake.

Using wood adhesive as a protective layer - I noticed as it dried, that it gave a nice white, shiny finish, that is similar to porcelain.

I then repeated it to the other clay face of the male, to see if any difference would be visible once dry.

Although it isn't visible in the photo - the glue hadn't affected the porcelain but it gave the clay a green hue.

I left it and moved into the next stage and my favorite - smashing my own face.

Without figuring out beforehand that the glue wouldn't be solid like resin or lacquer.

So I decided with the other porcelain face - I would smash it before adding the adhesive.

 Smashed and glued back together - I painted two layers of adhesive and then used gold paint as well as ink to paint some of the crevices and cracks.

The glue would split open and make bubbles. I thought it added into the effect of the healing process.

I then repeated the same process with the gold and glue to the other porcelain face.

Also scratching the layer with a scalpel  to give the effect of imperfections. By using sandpaper over the top, it made the lines more visible.

  

Project Seven: Yes....No...The possibilities are endless!

For this project we weren't given a theme. We had the choice of either working on a previous project brief or creating something entirely new.
I went with a new theme one I felt best suited me at that current time.
Sleep......or more sleeping problems. Something I've suffered from for years and have brief nights of freedom.
So I did more research into Sleep.

• What is it?
• Why do we need it?
• Sleeping problems?
• What are harmful effects of sleep deprivations?

The amount of information I came away with seemed endless. The best website I found to have in depth explanations and information was How Sleep Works

Thinking about if the other student's had sleeping problems too - I was going to set up a survey and record their problems to but then after advice from the lecturer. I came to realize that, that would be even more work for me, giving me less time to do development and finish the final piece.
So I turned to my own experience. I've had quite a few, spine tingling night-terrors through the years. It got so bad at one point that I would have them five nights a few. This caused problems, not just for me but my partner who witness these fits of frights.
I got help and they calmed down, after a few weeks they stopped. From time to time I have the occasional terror but not as horrifying as my previous ones.

So I focused on what my night terrors were. The ghastly form they took,well for one, they were usually phobia's - big creepy crawlers, spiders, daddy long legs and wasps oh and the one time with the maggots and flies, crawling from my eyes. I can still feel them as I think about it!

Thinking on it - how would I best represent it? I came up with the plan of a bed sheet and how these creatures invade this place when we are most vulnerable.

I started to search out images of creepers and made stencils. Above is a photo of the final silhouette - with it being completely blacked and out tracing paper wings. I thought this would add a nice effect to the final. The idea of these creatures seeping through the sheet.

I then started on a white, felt square. Using felt pen I transfer the stencil and colored it in - giving it the appearance of a silhouette.

I bought two single bed sheets. One for the final and the other for experiments. Once I was happy with the ink and stitch effect, I started on my final.

I took me a week days to just transfer the stencils and then paint the ink - I even had to take it home so that I could finish it on time.

Working on the sheet in blocks helped as I didn't have a lot of space. I started on the bottom, left sheet corner, then used newspaper to stop the sheet from touching - when I folded to do the next block.

By the time I was at the bottom right corner, I could start at the beginning dry and with no worry of the wet ink messing up other parts of the clean sheet.

I used water-soluble ink to give many shades of black and then once dry, I used Indian ink - not realizing that it wouldn't bleed like the other.

After all of it was dry and ready, I moved onto the next stage. I sewed around a few of the insects, to draw them out a bit more from the sheet.

There was these two flies that I had to build the rest of there bodies - I did this to give them a bit more life and that the bed sheet doesn't hold them, well not fully.

 From a distance, the use of stitch and ink complements each other as I thought it would in my experiments.

Once I had finished sewing, I got on with the wings. With there being 60 pairs needing transferred, cut and glued - this took me a further day because of the various sizes.

So on the last day, with a big tube of glue - I started gluing them on at home and then took it into the studio to finish.

Finally when all the wings were glued on, I nailed it to the wall. hanging one, dirty, discolored and disheveled pillow to the top - so that it wouldn't go unnoticed.

 I like very much how this has turned out - it's like these little creatures are trying to crawl up the sheet and anyone sleeping there will be at their mercy.

I think I'd like to do this theme again but spend longer on it. In my mind, it would look very interesting if the insects aren't at the bottom but more in the shape of a sleeping person or persons.