Improvisation

COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Isobelle Pover

improvisation

piece using twenty found objects and using ten methods of joining.

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isobelle pover Š 2009

COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Isobelle Pover

found objects

20 photos: isobelle pover © 2009

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COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Audit of objects and materials

1 A wooden ladder 2 A Date Palm stem 3 A Large Stone 4 A Small White stone 5 A Small Black stone 6 A Small piece of Terracotta brick 7 A Ball of natural String 8 Wooden Chop sticks, in one piece 9 Brown Glass piece 10 Plastic laundry clip 11 Plastic laundry clip 12 Plastic laundry clip 13 Plastic laundry clip 14 Wooden Kitchen utensil 15 Graphite Pencil 16 Wooden stick 17 A Ceramic bowl 18 A Paper Wrapper 19 Elastic Rubber bands 20 Strips of Aluminium Mesh 21 A Strip of Cotton Cloth 22 Copper Wire 23 Bluetac® Dimensions 180cm high x 30cm wide x 60cm deep

Photography Isobelle Pover © 2010

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Isobelle Pover

Improvisation is a game - artist’s statement Improvising with the notion of solving a problem or completing a task, we use our knowledge of materials and their compositional attributes. Each collection of random or pre-selected objects, offers different problems and solutions. We use practical and functional methodology, trial and error, correction and assessment. Necessity inspires solutions that can be inventive and ingenious.

The constraints of ‘joining’ twenty objects using ten different ways, presents the examination of the differing materials composition; shapes, weights and textures testing and experimenting with our resourcefulness our playful creativity. Collecting more items than the task, replacing, adding and discarding the objects was a dialogue; the perfect piece of wood, the correct shaped stone, some wire, flotsam and jetsam.

During my building and assembly I experimented without fussing much about a particular material or method of joining, somehow the things around were ‘all possibilities’ and my opportunistic behaviour of collecting, had some fun.

So the practice of improvisation began to be a game of fun and experiment. I tested a few different methods and this led to more ideas, making progress I collected data about materials and saw new ways to m y familiar working methods.

The main piece is wooden ladder, this only became apparent on my find of a Date Palm fruit stem, this appealed to me for its natural curves and dried form baked into a structure, this needed a base for display that was strong. The experimenting began as each task of building the objects together presented their problems and solutions with aspects about the weight, fragility, size, composition, surface texture and colour.

As I had no plan or sketch I relied on looking and touch. To achieve verticality, using a law of engineering, a structural method of a ladder as a buttress to take weight in two directions; up and down and a limited angle to each side. The focal point is the Date Palm stem and the idea of a Bower Bird came to mind. This was partly the idea of using coloured laundry pegs that Magpies are fond of collecting to decorate their nests.

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COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION Audit of methods of joining 1 Binding or Wrapping with fine copper wire.

2 Cocooning or Wrapping with thin aluminum mesh.

3 Wedging into two surfaces and held by the force of tension.

4 Holding in place with a taut elastic band using tension.

5 Anchored with a tie and cradled inside a structure.

6 Tied around with soft textile and held in place.

7 Tied around with string 8 Sealed in place with melted Candle Wax. 9 Bluetac® adhesive bond.

10 Rice Paste to adhere paper to wood.

Isobelle Pover

I began a process of decoration of the ‘Bower Bird’ section and soon the palm stem shape was camouflaged. As a result I discarded, many ‘little trinkets’ by working on a second palm stem. The structure of the ladder became important when the Palm stem was attached.

It became apparent that the location of the work-space affected the improvisation.

Outdoors I was looking at feathers and sticks and laundry clips, in the kitchen I began to use utensils and hunt through the drawers for objects. On a walk at the local beach I found coloured glass and shells. Working over a period of days the piece began to take on a metaphor using the ladder working up and down its struts, moving objects around and reducing these in number.

The lecture on calligraphic forms inspired my thoughts, the Palm stem has the form and shape of linear strokes and together a natural movement and flow. The growth formation and the elements, had shaped this dried organic material into a beautiful shape. There was no improving on its form so I used it as a visual counter balance for the ladder, so each item was now dependent on the other, these are the bold strokes, the other objects are the detail to be discovered.

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Isobelle Pover © 2010

methods of joining

COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Isobelle Pover

An improvisation piece using twenty found objects and using ten methods of joining.

天まで

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COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Isobelle Pover

2+3+4+5 Binding or Wrapping with ďŹ ne copper wire. Glass. stone, laundry clip, stick. Used four times.

3 Cocooning with thin aluminum mesh, laundry clip Used twice.

3+7 Wedging into two surfaces and held by the force of tension, laundry clip, chopsticks Used once. Used twice

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4 6 6+7 see 8 Holding in place with a taut elastic band and the loops fastened with a single clip, chopsticks, wooden kitchen utensil Used four times.

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COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION Isobelle Pover 9 Wrap, Aluminium mesh and fasten mesh in place with a laundry clip.

10 Tied around with soft textile and held in place.

Tied around with string and sealed in place with Candle Wax. Contacted, two surfaces with Bluetac速 adhesive bond.

Rice Paste to adhere paper to wood.

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COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Isobelle Pover

天まで 8

COFA 0909 CROSS-CULTURAL SCULPTURE - FUNK-TIONALITY PART 1 IMPROVISATION

Isobelle Pover

Post Script response to Bonita Ely Posting Cofa Online. Monday 21 Sep 2009 - 13:25 EST Application of knowledge Think back to the Home Show & the encoding of objects, and the POS workshop and apply what you discovered there to the current project. I began to remove objects, as there were too many, it appeared cluttered and likewise interpretations.

Objects in dialogue Allow your conceptual content in the work to grow as the sculpture grows, that is, spontaneously. Here your work will be a combo of objects so they will be in dialogue with each other. The object’s dialogue certainly began resonating with meanings, Elements of expression The dialogue is determined by the position of the object - top, ground level, what is is placed next to, the kind of structure everything is contextualised by, how the objects are modified and how they may morph into one another, how they are joined - the colours - are they monochromatic, psychedelic, plastic juxtaposed with natural? The tonal character - contrasting, subdued, subtle? During a period of days and photographing it with four different backgrounds the objects seemed to demand a shift to a new position, the suspended stone was too long the bowl moved down a rung, etc, the rungs began to take on a meaning from the proverbs, ‘climbing the ladder’ for advantage, ‘he’s on the bottom rung’ Cultural context Now we a re exposed to ideas and objects, spaces and materials from every corner of the world - the cultural origin of your objects will feed into the conceptual interpretation of your sculpture. metaphors such as; heavenwards, and ‘thanks for our daily bread’, or rice with these objects. It began to take on a tone and manner of the perspective from an ‘Anglo’ to ‘Asian’ and the calligraphic interpretation of the Date Palm stem.

Joining Also - by now you will have realised the way you join things also factors into readings of the sculpture so you might like to make a conceptual feature of some joinings, not make them all seamless/invisible. 9/10 my ‘joinings’ were visible, (interesting as many students produced seamless/invisible), I purposefully wanted the joining as a part of each object, the mesh forming around the laundry clip as a chrysalis

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in nature protecting the life force in a forming insect.

Acknowledgements Dr. Bonita Ely lecture Taoism and Improvisation in the Visual Arts. COFA, 2009 Rurrberg, Schneckenburger, Fricke and Honne Vol 1 Art of the 20th Century, Taschen, 2005 Lao Tzu The Path of Virtue, Abrahms, NewYork, 2009 Daoist Chinese Charscters http://www.edepot.com