Sculpture Studio Portfolio (SP10)

Project 4: Self Designed
Intention Statement

What is water? It is a bonding of hydrogen and oxygen molecules. It is the basis of living organisms. It gives life, and without it brings death; it makes life on the planet Earth possible. It is a substance with a specific texture, it is a liquid that moves with gravity, and it can turn into steam or ice. Humans drink it to sustain life, use it as an ingredient in food, bathe in it, clean other things with it, play with it, warm or cool down by it, and utilize its energy to power objects. It can be as massive as the collection of water of the seas; it can be as tiny as a droplet of dew. There are a handful of words to describe it in English, from “rain” to “shower” to “wave” to “pool,” based on its movement, size, and shape. There are thousands of ways to define water.

In my sculpture I wanted to explore “water” conceptually, to try to mimic its qualities visually in a different medium: paper, dyed blue (as that is the color most people seem to generically associate with water, rather than clear). With the help of water itself, I found I could manipulate the paper so that it dried in such a way that would suggest to the viewer the movement of water, stilled in a moment of time. But that was only step one. How could I create the space of water, or the illusion of the space a body of water creates? For this I had to imagine my own experience swimming in water, and think of how to recreate it: when swimming, I feel as though I am in a contained space—the water is separate from the air—like being in a cube of water (for lack of a better word). I decided then to create a closed-in shape for my sculpture that the viewer alone could look into, to try to visually recreate the feeling of being inside water in their mind. To help this illusion I decided to add a swimming figure.

For my figure, to keep with the mood of “stilled in a moment of time,” I wanted to make sure to choose a swimming pose without much action, since I did not want to emphasize movement. So this human figure is in a reclined pose, as if he fell backwards into the water, letting himself sink and feel the water around him. I also looked at various photo shoots of women in fabric underwater, and the shapes they created became inspiration for how I could form the paper around him.

The “walls” of the inside and outside are made by the same technique, but when in juxtaposition, the outside appears to be dripping; the inside becomes the volume of water. I used the same paper and paint to create a sheet for the top, which I cut shapes out to resemble waves, so when a light was pointed at it, it would create a similar effect of light refracted in water. I also covered the light source with blue plastic, and not only does it cast a more watery light, but it changes the color of the inside; as when submerged in water, water looks different than when outside of it.

To see sculpture images, go to Self Designed Project.