Soap, paint, wood, glue.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Liz Burris, Student Work
Architectural Styles: Moorish, Early Modern, Modern and Postmodern
Materials: Balsa Wood, Black Paper, Wood Glue, Foam Board, Masking Tape
With this piece I was inspired by specific elements of the aforementioned architectural styles. With Moorish Architecture I am really fascinated with muqarnas, which is this particular form of vaulting- it is quite geometrically complex but it often takes the form of a honeycomb and in certain structures it even resembles stalactites. With the Modern styles I was interested in the uses of geometric shapes and line. I looked specifically to the Sydney Opera House, the Denver Art Museum, and a variety of houses.
Initially I was unsure of what I was going to make. I knew I wanted a stalactite/honey comb like feature so I began to make that first.I used the tape to create my take on the muqarnas. Here I hit a roadblock and had no idea what to do next so I decided to install the piece I had created and then build the rest of this work off of it.After creating my honeycomb like structure I naturally began thinking about honey bees. From that point I decided I wanted to make some honey-like detail, so I experimented and used wood glue for the "honey" bits. I then used foam board to create a geometric structure in the middle of this piece and balsa to create the bottom. As I continued to work on this piece I became more and more interested in how these particular details worked in creating shadows.
Tyler, Student Work
Balsa wood, foam board, thread, trace paper, battery operated light.
20" x 25" x 12"
I used a total of three different architectural movements. I conducted research and used the pictures below as my inspiration. My idea was to use the simplicity of the Egyptian architecture with the complex and futuristic look of Post-modernism. When building the sculpture, I decided to keep everything dealing with Egyptian architecture to remain balsa wood. In contrast, everything Post-modern would remain foam board. I did this to show a sharp contrast between the two and how they can still live in harmony together. I have always been interested in the unique designs of Gothic windows, so I included them as the transparency within the Post-modern section. I noticed how gothic windows start off complex near the top and become more simplistic as you move away from the focal point. That is why I included a detailed gothic design, made of paper, and then cut out simpler shapes for the remainder of the windows. A light source was then added inside the windows to help illuminate the gothic style windows.
