On my second trip to the site less of interest was available as new material had covered much of it. This caught my eye it is .75 meter and is bent beyond recognition but still maintains a reminder of its original use as a support of some kind for many years, then its destruction has left it bent in a sculptural way. I felt when I saw it that this energy traveled around it still and I wanted to make it into a solid unit to form something new. Cornelia Parker has utilised destruction in much of her work and the contrast of the ‘broken’. We can find beauty in destruction perhaps it is a human desire to destroy things so that we can begin again?
Again I don’t want to loose the object in the work. I am considering returning all of the objects back to the site. The chicken wire is solid enough for me to imagine the planes of the object as a solid. My original idea was to encase it in metal and hammer in scientific calculations.
Once the chicken wire is cut and bent around the frame, it is possible to change which planes meet. There was a lovely bend which followed the edges so I might want to use a flexible material rather than cast the objects as a solid. It is quite interesting in form because of its transparency – this is my first experience with chicken wire and I think it has helped me to imagine the four sides of the object which is always the difficult part of making a sculpture. I hung it to view it and think about the next stage as I don’t feel it has a front or back, it exists as an idea and is beginning to take shape.
Cutting away the mudrock to remove the metal. I now have the planes in a physical form and will put some thought into how to proceed.
Babs Smith Multidisciplinary Artist 