Sculpture Studio: May 2020

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Rachel Lee, Student Work

Play-Dough

Black and White Filter

Artist Statement

For this sculpture collection I was inspired by Tami Ashcraft, a female sailor who had her boat shipwrecked during Hurricane Raymond in the 80's and had to find her way back to land, whilst stranded alone in the middle of the ocean. There is a book and movie about Tami's story titled 'Adrift' and it is where I sourced most of my inspiration for sculptures.
    Within this work I wanted to create an open boat form to hold the objects inspired by Tami and her story. I also wanted to create a clay background inspired by the strength of the sea and the hurricane. Within the boat I have several mini-sculptures that are representative of Tami's character. One of the objects being a bird sitting on the top of the boat. I constructed this bird to be representative of a sign of hope that Tami saw as she got closer to land at the end of her story. I also constructed a chain to represent her strength throughout the narrative. Another object I created includes a spiral sphere to be representative of the repetitive tasks Tami did daily to keep her sane. There is also a pile of spheres within the boat, I constructed these to be representative of the dwindling levels of supplies Tami had to survive off of. Next to the spheres, I have created a compass, map, and telescope. These tools were vital to Tami's survival and ended up being what got her home safe. I also created an anatomical heart to represent Tami's grit and continued love for sailing and the ocean, even after her shipwreck. The last object is inspired by a broken sail and lines to represent the overall shipwreck.

https://rachellee255.wixsite.com/3dblog/post/miniature

Amanda Marable, Student Work

Filtered Photos of play-dough sculptures.

Artist Statement:

This environment is inspired by the movie "Room." In this movie, a women was kidnapped and held captive for seven years. Her 5-year-old son was born during captivity. Since the movie is from the child's perspective, I made the environment representative of the child's point of view. Each sculpture is representational of the things the child knows: the bed where his mother sleeps, the lamp that he says good morning to, the wardrobe that his mother hides him in when the man who holds them captive comes in the room, the eggs that the child uses as toys after eating, and the rug that holds a lot of significance in the movie. The items are purposefully simple to represent how little the boy knows about the world outside of the shed. All of the sculptures are toppled on top of each other in tight quarters, which is representational of how they have lived their lives. The objects are placed in this way to emphasize not only the tight quarters but also to show how the mother and son feel while held in captivity. The wood block on the bottom represents the area of space they have to live in their shed. The lack of walls in this diorama represents the hope of getting out eventually. The rug has the pattern of the ceiling that they wake up looking at every morning and the rug is on top of everything because it ends up being what helps the boy eventually escape. The filtered photos are in black and white to show how depressed they were while in captivity and how the mother continued to feel this way after they escaped.

https://annmariefox.blogspot.com/2020/05/miniature-play-dough.html