Lauren Frances EvansI initially wanted to go in a prettier, more polished direction with my work, however as the project progressed, I leaned into a rougher, less beautiful aesthetic and looked to Evan's work for inspiration.
Evans' work explores the concept of creativity, and symbolism, as well as engage with the concept of maternity and how the body is inhabited. She's fascinated by the origins of individual life. She titles her exhibition "Omphalos", a Greek word translating directly to "navel", believing the navel to be a scar that connects each person to their own origins. In Omphalos, she explores what lies between what is and what is not, and the longing that comes with that paradox. She believes the body to simultaneously be container and contained, a mold and molded. |
In this exhibit she conveys these ideas via these continuous forms, made up of layers, upon layers of cardboard. She tears the cardboard into long strips, and places them on top of each other, sealing them together with hot glue on the inside of the sculpture.
I took inspiration not so much from her fascination with individual origins, but from this technique she presented in works such as Knot tied and Omhaloskepsis. I was drawn to the how she created smooth flowing forms despite the rough torn look of the cardboard strips. The contrast between these two elements of her work fascinated me, and inspired me to create something in the same vein. |
When Katie first introduced the alter egos project to us, I struggled to come up with exactly what I wanted to become, I struggled with what aspects of me I wanted to express in this piece. One day I was pitching my idea to my friend and he reminded me that the teachers wanted us to try our best to incorporate movement into my piece. My brain instantly latched onto that idea of movement, and I eventually came around to the idea of piece being a jellyfish. I tend to flip flop my feelings, my attitudes, my everything from one thing, to the opposite of that thing, causing me to not know who I am. When I think jellyfish I think beautiful, but poisonous, I think free floating, yet fated to be moved by the waves. Through these contrasting qualities I feel that I'm able to express who I am. I found that the binaries inherent to both jellyfish and me, also applied nicely to Lauren Frances Evans fascination with the binaries inherent to the human body.
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Originally I planned that the Body and the tentacles of the jellyfish would all be attached in one piece, however after some input from my teacher I decided creating a separate headpiece, and shoulder piece would help add depth to the movement of the piece. The head was gonna be made out of cardboard strips glued together in a sort of semi spherical shape, with a head support inside, and a second layer of long flat torn strips, followed by a third layer of paper mache. I considered adding colored tiles, white polka dots or woodstains, however I ultimately wouldn't add any of these element. Next I was to glue a wave of corigated cardboard along the edge of the head, with thin strings with little cardboard beads on the ends. The shoulder tentacles were gonna be made 3 different ways; large sections of corrigated cardboard, crinkled paper bag material, and thin strips folded in a zig zag kind of pattern.
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In order to obtain the sections of corrigated cardboard I needed, I filled up my bathtub with a few inches of water and pressed a flattened cardboard box under the water and let it soak for a few minutes. Then I peeled away the thin layer of cardboard on one side and set both pieces aside to dry.
while I was letting one of my boxes soak, I began to work on the armature of the head. I cut another box into 2 inch strips, and fastened them into a sort of half sphere with a hot glue gun. It was around this time I decided against the head support so it would have a looser movement pattern. I took the wet peeled off pieces of cardboard and tore it into large strips and draped it over the armature, fastening it with Elmer's glue. While the previous layer was meant to provide support, this layer was meant to serve as a base to spread my cardboard paper mache across. I ripped some of the cardboard into little squares, added a 2:1 ratio of glue to water, mixed them together, and spread the pieces across the first layer. |
Next I cut my cardboard into 2.5 inch wide strips and glued them to a length I was satified with. I wrapped a strip around my shoulders to create a base, and added shoulder straps for support. I glued the long strips to the base, and manipulated the tentacles into a wavy sort of appearance to give it texture. For the next kind of tentacle, I cut roughly five inch wide strips of paper and scrunched them up into a way I was satisfied with, then glued them between the flat tentacles on the base. Finally I cut thin strips of cardboard and attached some of them to the base, and set some aside for later.
Finally I went back to the head and cut the corrigated in short wavy strips and attached them to the base of the head with hot glue. Then I took some of the thin strips I had set aside and glued them to the back of the corrigated ruffle. |