My aim of this project was explore the word “preservation”.
I wanted to express the forgery which is very evident in the ancient artifacts area.
This project really did push me and my skills a step further than other work I have produced in the past.
I produced the mummified Minotaur in such a way that it created a conundrum, visually showing the audience a realistic mummy which appears to be situated in a museum, yet they still know it cant be real as it’s a minotaur, a creature of myth’s and childhood fairy tales, so it expresses the forgery within the ancient artifact's area and successfully shows preservation.
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| Created by Lance Bishop. |
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| The final Outcome The mummified Minotaur Below is a related news article about the college and my minotaur being created, this is for any further intrest. http://www.midlandsbusinessnews.co.uk/2011-06/south-staffordshire-college-students-put-on-art-and-design-show-at-garrick.aspx
Extended Essay
My aim of this final major project was explore the word “preservation” by looking into three possible ideas which I can then develop from. My initial page explored the subject in three completely different ways, mummification, food preservation and global preservation. I chose mummification out of the three, in which I then started to look at the history and its periods before and after the slow decline the country entered. I explored the art of mummification and exactly how the burial was performed and also a series of news articles that may inspire me and my work for my future development. In particular one story stood out from the bunch, “If a falcon could not be offered to HORUS (a god), a false mummy was often constructed, this was quite a common act and performed regularly”. By just reading this statement it created ideas and from these led to me exploring into deception and fraud. An initial idea was to create a genuine realistic mummy but make it look brand new and perhaps shiny, so it appeared to look like a mummy to the audience, but asked the question, how could this be a real mummy if it looks so new, this would represent a fake mummy. To understand my idea it was important to be aware exactly what forgery meant. This opened my eyes to a different way in which I could take my idea, showing something that isn’t real and make it appear authentic to the audience. Films such as Indiana Jones and the series X-files were interesting to look into because they looked at stories which were not backed up with evidence and created their shows around it. From x-files , I explored the possible use of aliens as these were a creature that have been sighted by people around the world , but have never been proven to be real . At this point I was thinking too literal, so I looked at artists for possible inspiration, Ron Mueck, an Australian artist who created normal everyday people completely out of proportion, this would be showing a real subject but by changing its proportions would make the audience believe it to be false and fake. So I thought about the meaning of forgery, to portray something that isn’t real as a real object, like an alien or mythical creature in stories and folk tales. I investigated all popular mythical creatures and beasts’ including unicorns and Minotaur’s which I thought had the advantage of being easily recognisable. As I considered the different mythical creatures I had researched into, I came across a picture of a mummy which was in an awkward and decrepit position which I really liked. This was the first time I had tested a use of possible structure materials, exploring the use of chicken wire covered by mod-rock, this would be a useful and easily manipulated material which would be hardened by the mod-rock. I limited my myself to seven possible creatures, the unicorn, yeti, dragon, centaur, lockless monster, griffin and Minotaur. There were advantages and disadvantages for each individual candidate but the Minotaur was the most recognisable and was half human, therefore I could relate it to the human mummy’s very easily. In order for me to grasp what the Minotaur was about, I researched into the myth behind the beast and the way it died under the sword of king Minus. I began looking at Artists that had worked on Minotaur’s, I found a book in the local library on an artist called Michael Ayrton who was an English artist who created amazing sculptures and etchings of minotaur’s, it was very interesting to look at the form he had gave to the beast and how he had shown them to be incredibly powerful. It was from pictures like this that I learned about the form and structure, from the picture I can see immense upper body and smaller legs. I can see the unique shape of the horns coming in at a 90 degree angle. I then looked at different Minotaur’s which have been created by people for completely different reasons. One shape that kept coming up was that of a more generic animated bodily structure which I wanted to steer clear from because they were built for a more action packed reasons such as games, films or cartoons. To visualise my piece again I started to make sketches looking at creating a mummified Minotaur in alternative compositions, I also made a sketch of the Minotaur in the decrepit mummified position in which I had already looked at, I really did think it offered something different rather than the typical mummy pose. Another option was expressing how the mummy was fake by writing on the wrappings, signifying that the mummy was fake and it just had to be unwrapped to be found out. Although this looked aesthetically quite good, after discussion with my tutor we agreed it would be too obvious. I looked at the difference in the animated Minotaur’s head compared to the more realistic bulls head, the differences were very obvious , the animation looked a lot more aggressive and stylized were as the bulls head was bulky and longer in the face , the more realistic head would be an easier head to create from chicken wire. I wanted to look into how Minotaur’s had been perceived in films so I look at a scene from time travellers, a film I remember watching as a child. This minotaur was a man with a huge bulls mask on, wasn’t very life like at all and wasn’t the sort of minotaur I wanted to portray, it was important that i looked at this because i was able to identify parts of the body in which I would need to include in my 3d sculpture to ensure it didn’t look like a man in a mask. I then researched into mummified positions, identifying the typical positions and also looking at mummified hands which led me to want to visually see what I had developed my idea into. I created small models from clay which were very easy to mould. It was important I formed them in the correct poses, I wanted to explore the typical mummified position and the decrepit position, I still favoured the alternative to the typical position. Although the models are of a good standard, I don’t think I am quite getting the ideal Minotaur look that I am seeing in my head. I chose to further my research and have a second go with a greater knowledge. I needed to collect a greater understanding of the human anatomy, therefore I had a friend make the compositions of my possible Minotaur pieces. I was able to take simple line sketches which helped me understand the form which I need to create. I collected a handful of bull pictures so that I could analyse their structure ,by looking at the pictures I have I am able to point out certain things I need to include in my 3d sculpture, in particular the spinal column needs to be thicker so that the whole body sits right. To understand the muscular structure of the beast, I look into the human body and make sketches; I can see the position of the muscles, although I need the Minotaur to have a huge upper body the muscles will be in the same place. then after large amounts of sketches and the anatomy pictures, I re-create what I’ve looked at and the outcome came out a lot better, I formed the second models defining them a lot better than the first, I ensured the models were bigger in build and the body was built on a solid spinal structure, this made it a lot easier to get the curve and form of the body in the decrepit position. I was extremely happy with the small clay model in the curled up position, so I produce a mock up five times the size with a lot more detail in the whole 3d structure, making this would make it easier to create the structure from chicken wire. Now I had the final composition and knew exactly what I wanted my piece to look like, it was now time to test some material; I looked at materials such as Hessian, cotton and calico and even thinner material, interfacing. I found that the most appropriate material was indeed the calico because it is easily manipulated and stained which will be very useful when going through the wrapping process. To ensure the mummy looks authentic I explore the techniques used to wrap the mummies in I tried powdered plaster and charcoal, looked too clean, and tea soaking and then burning the edges, but I lost far too much of the material. The break though came when I tried tea staining over the top of the charcoal marked calico, this gave a old ageing effect and very detailed, perfect for what I need. I needed to produce the hands separately apart from the chicken wire body, so I tested a number of techniques. The mod-rock model worked very well but was a little bit small due to the size of the model hand used, so should I use this technique, perhaps I could try forming it around my own hands. Also I produced a plaster model by filling a latex glove to the brink and allowing it to dry; this took a small amount of time, approximately ten minutes, but didn’t look particularly like the form of a normal hand shape. I created a similar hand out of a rubber glove using the same technique but again the hand was completely the wrong shape. The only other option was to create the hand from clay, this was a time consuming process and would involve a lot more skill. Looking over all four techniques my conclusion was to go with the mod-rock models, this would be the correct size for the Minotaur, and not look out of place. To test out the technique of placing the mod-rock over the top of the chicken wire I made a model of the arm, it didn’t take well because it dipped through the gaps. My two options were to just cover over the top of the dipped mod-rock or to wrap the chicken wire in cling film so when the mod-rock was applied it stood firm. I came across sketches of Leonardo di vinci, these were proportional pictures which helped him form his main art work, from looking at him, he has inspired me to produce final sketches of the for, composition and colour scheme of the minotaur. I started creating the final major project out of chicken wire, I started with the arms, using my hands to manipulate the metal wiring, ensuring I created the correct angle so that it all falls into the shape of the composition. Once the arms and legs had been made, it was time to produce the main body structure that was the upper body and stomach. I had to make the upper body very wide and slowly bent it in to get the smaller shape of the toned stomach, it was important I got the pecks in to show a solid, powerful form. I attached the arms and legs to the main body by twisting the loose metal around the edge and connecting it to the other piece, then to hold the arms in the compositional place I use cable ties, they were quick and effective. I check the form of the arms against my mock up constantly to guarantee that my structure is on target to look the way I want it to. Creating the head was a difficult task because of the shape of the snout connecting to the wider fore head, I made it by overlapping the chicken wire, this was slightly more difficult but a lot easier than it would be to manipulate one single sheet. Created the ears and horns separately and fixed them by bonding the loose metal edges. I didn’t construct the horns correctly the initial time, the first attempt saw the horns far too small and thin, and when I applied them to the Minotaur I instantly recognised this and produced a pair that was proportionally correct. The head connected the rest of the body through the top of the spine which ran down the centre of the back. Then when the structure had been completed, I observed the piece with my tutor and we agreed on a small amount of corrections that must be made before I mod-rocked the body. These consisted of correcting the feet shape and size, the hands needed to be fastened on , the bum needed to be brought out to show more of a curve and the right arm needed raising as it looked a little too long. These were minor alterations but would make the difference when it came to the whole look of the entire structure. I then wrapped the entire structure tightly in cling film so that the mod-rock wouldn’t dip through as experimented with earlier on. I started layering the mod-rock starting with the back because should I have layered the top first it would have caved the frame in. a small problem arose again when layering, small lumps came up obviously where the chicken wire wasn’t flattened properly, I just pushed them in gently while the mod rock was setting . My next task was to stain all the calico, I first ran charcoal down the individual strip of calico and then placed it in a bucket, with forte tea-bags in, half full with water. This was a time consuming process but after this had been completed I started wrapping the Minotaur. I wrapped the arms and legs first keeping the calico very close and tight gave an ideal effect which I was happy with. The legs and arms were very simple to wrap, were as the chest was very difficult as I needed longer strips, and the awkward position of the mummy made it a lot harder to keep the calico straight. But the real difficulties came when wrapping the head due to its strange shape, it involved a lot of gluing loose pieces and tucking them carefully so not to leave any showing. Once the Minotaur was completed, I explored a few different ways of displaying this, either upon a table with a throw over or in some sort of crate, I chose to go with the table option and make this piece look very realistic as if it was meant to be in a museum. The problem arose that I could find a table big enough as the biggest table I could find was six foot in length, and I needed an extra half a foot. So my way to conquer this was to cut a piece of plywood which was larger and place it on top and nobody would know any different because it would be covered by the drape. The drape in most museums is standard black. I chose to go with a good quality material rather than just black cotton which would cheapen the effect. The Minotaur was taken to the gallery and placed on the museum like table and I was very pleased, it really did look exactly how I imagined but I felt like there was still something missing. A museum tag was just needed on the table to authenticate the piece and get the most out of the idea, I created a simple but elegant marker by printing straight onto a beige card, I only wanted it to be simple so I didn’t take any of the audience’s attention away from my main subject, the Minotaur. my evaluation of my final piece is that although this has been a challenging piece and problems have arose along the way, it has pushed me and my skills a step further than other work I have produced in the past, it created a conundrum, visually showing the audience a realistic mummy which appears to be situated in a museum yet they still know it cant be real as it’s a minotaur, a creature of myth’s and childhood fairytales, so it expresses the forgery within the ancient artefacts area and successfully shows preservation. |
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