What a Relief
Title: The Guiding Hand
Size: 66 cm x 35 cm Medium: Recycled cardboard, Gorilla Glue, and X-Acto knife Date of Completion: 2/21/24 The Guiding Hand is a sculpture created entirely from cardboard. There are two components to this piece. The hand and the “marionette” connected to it via a strand of cardboard. Each piece of cardboard was hand cut and glued together using purchased gorilla glue. This piece was inspired by the hanging sculpture Arch of Hysteria 1993 by Louise Bourgeois. Focus was placed on the elements of shape and repetition when constructing the piece. The Guiding Hand is meant to represent the reality of corporate lobbying.
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Inspiration
Louise Bourgeois- Arch of Hysteria, 1993
Arch of Hysteria (1993)
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Inspiration for my piece came from Louise Bourgeois' hanging sculpture the Arch of Hysteria. This bronze piece was inspired by Bourgeois' experiences in psychoanalysis. The sculpture was shaped by covering someone's body in a plaster mold and then cutting it out.
As was stated, Bourgeois’ inspiration for this piece came from her experiences in psychoanalysis. She had been in psychoanalysis from 1951 to around the 1980s. According to her, psychoanalysts took a special interest in “hysterical women”. These women had contortions in their bodies that caused their backs to arch up in the air. No physical reason could be found as to why their bodies were behaving in this manner. It was believed that the cause of this reaction was psychological and connected to trauma. Bourgeois made a connection to psychoanalysis and her own work. Emotions and psychology were prevalent in the field of psychoanalysis. Bourgeois herself transformed emotions into sculptures. Bourgeois chose to make her sculpture hang from the ceiling. As a result, it loses its stability which causes it to spin and pivot. This was completely intentional on Bourgeois’ part. She knew that hanging the piece would cause it to give off the feeling of fragility. There are two reasons this piece inspired my own. The first is because of the fact that it is hanging. I originally went into this project with the plan for it to hang from the wall as a relief. When I saw this piece, it reminded me of my plans for my own piece. The second reason is because of our shared idea of hanging. My piece is meant to share imagery to that of a puppet on strings. Connecting back to my theme of politics and how politicians bend backwards for whoever is funding their campaigns. Bourgeoisie also incorporates hanging in her piece to better show what it means. When I first saw this piece, I interpreted it as a lack of control. I believed the hanging figure to be a marionette/ragdoll being used as some sort of plaything for whoever was pulling its strings. This is what mainly inspired my own piece. |
Planning
Ideation-
These are the three ideation images I drew while coming up with what I wanted to do. They were all drawn realistically because I personally find that it is far easier to simplify a realistic image than create one from scratch. I decided to use my idea from the top image because I felt it connected the most with my political theme. From this drawing I created much more geometric ones.
These drawings connect to my political theme in two different ways. The two hands with eyes were meant to represent government monitoring. Specifically, I had the KOSA/ Kids Online Safety Act in my head while drawing them. An act meant to place heavy surveillance on internet users in the U.S disguised as something meant to protect children.
The hand holding up the figure (my final design) is meant to represent corporate lobbying. Many politicians receive funding for their campaigns from corporations. These politicians then return the favor by promoting policies that benefit the corporation. The hand in my design is meant to represent these corporations controlling politicians like puppets.
These drawings connect to my political theme in two different ways. The two hands with eyes were meant to represent government monitoring. Specifically, I had the KOSA/ Kids Online Safety Act in my head while drawing them. An act meant to place heavy surveillance on internet users in the U.S disguised as something meant to protect children.
The hand holding up the figure (my final design) is meant to represent corporate lobbying. Many politicians receive funding for their campaigns from corporations. These politicians then return the favor by promoting policies that benefit the corporation. The hand in my design is meant to represent these corporations controlling politicians like puppets.
These drawings are the final design for my piece. Three different perspectives were made to better showcase my plans for the piece. They were drawn with the material in mind. The lines separate all the different pieces of cardboard that are attached to each other via glue. However, the final product would end up differing from this design. More efficient designs were created as I went along.
Process-
Stage 1- Base
The base was the easiest part to assemble. It consisted of me cutting out two large pieces of cardboard so that I could piece them together. I wasn’t sure at first as to how I would glue them together at first, but I came up with an idea quickly. Small rectangular pieces were cut out and glued horizontally across the two base pieces. Once the bottom pieces were put together, I then added the diagonal piece that would go on to be the base of the roof pieces.
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Stage 2- Supports
The supports weren’t very complicated to build, but I needed to be very careful when building them. If I built one of them shorter or longer than the other then it would result in the roof pieces not being able to reach the rest of the supports. This is why I had to carefully measure them before I cut them out. Other than that, building them was simple. Just a bit time consuming.
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Stage 3- Roof
Attaching the roof pieces would have been easy if it wasn’t for the order of how I decided to attach them. Since I had finished the supports, I assumed it would be as simple as attaching the roof pieces to the supports. However, I hadn’t considered that I would have to attach the roof pieces like how I attached the base pieces. So after I had already attached the base, I had to awkwardly approach at different angles in order to glue the support pieces.
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Stage 4- Sides
I had a bit of trouble gluing the sides because of the way I had glued the supports. Some of the supports would extend outwards which ended up pushing the side pieces away. I didn’t think it would be an issue, but it ended up being a major one. I mitigated this problem by attaching supports to the supports so that they would all stand straight. This became less of a problem after I had gone through it the first time.
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Stage 5- Fingers
The fingers were the most difficult part of the entire project. I spent a good amount of time just thinking of how to properly glue the fingers onto the hand. Then I had trouble finding a stable way to create the fingers without them falling apart or just falling off the hand. Eventually I decided that one section of the finger would be glued directly onto the hand. Then, I would glue supports onto that first section so that I could connect the second section onto the first without it falling off. Once I had finished the fingers, I moved onto the “marionette”. I drew a figure onto a piece of cardboard and then cut it out from there. It was a bit difficult to cut out round edges, but I managed in the end.
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Experimentation-
This entire project was experimentation for me. I’ve never used cardboard as a medium for art and have never thought of it as such. The tools I used for this project were also mainly experimentation.
I used three different tools to cut the cardboard for this piece. However, two of them were abandoned very early on. When I started the project, I attempted to use scissors to cut the cardboard for my piece. However, I very quickly found that the scissors were very slow and required a lot of force to cut. Which is why I then quickly moved on to a box cutter. The box cutter was a lot better than the scissors. However, there were still problems with it. I discovered that the blade was dull and not helpful for accurate cutting. It was fine when there was no other alternative, but I found one soon after. This alternative being the x-acto knife. The x-acto knife was the best of all three of the tools I used. It is the one I used for almost the entire project. This knife was able to easily cut cardboard and was a lot more accurate than the other tools. It was a bit tricky to use at first. I had trouble deciding on how much force I should cut the cardboard effectively. Though it didn’t take long to find out. This project was my first time using gorilla glue. Though it wasn’t exactly a new experience for me. I had previously done a project in freshman art class requiring the use of wood glue. The process I used then is the same I used in this project. The process consisted of just holding whatever I was attempting to glue together for around ten or more seconds. Sometimes it would require more, but it was generally very quick and sometimes easy. |
Critique-
Comparing
The most notable similarity between my piece and Bourgeois’ is the use of a hanging figure. Both of our pieces employ the use of a hanging figure specifically to communicate the meaning of our pieces. However, that is about where our similarities end.
Contrasting
Our pieces differ more than anything. The Arch of Hysteria has no other component other than the hanging figure. The Guiding Hand has two. These being the hand and the small hanging figure. We also differ in how we present our hanging figures. In Arch, the figure is large and has form. My figure hangs from a much larger sculpture and has no form. Its small size is supposed to contrast with the large hand to appear lesser. Arch has no need to employ this kind of contrast and so it doesn’t.
Reflection-
Overall, the most challenging part of this project was simply just working with cardboard. I’ve never thought of cardboard as a medium for art before this project. So it made working with just a bit awkward for me. It was difficult to even just adapt the sketches I made for the project into a 3 dimensional sculpture.The sketches I made didn’t even translate well into reality as I went with a different design as I realized my sketch just wasn’t feasible. My difficulty working with cardboard has really turned me away from it as a medium. I don’t think I enjoyed making this project as much as I enjoyed drawing the ideation for it. Personally, I found the process dull and repetitive. I can’t see myself in the future willingly choosing to use cardboard as a medium again. In conclusion, I guess I hope that when others view this work, they see an artist’s attempt to branch out and discover new mediums.
Check list
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- The idea of having a hanging component on my piece is shared between my piece and Bourgeois'.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The author was directly affiliated with Bourgeois and involved in the creation of her piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- Someones mental state may be able to affect their body physically.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- Bourgeois was mainly inspired by her experiences in psychoanalysis.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I inferred that Bourgeois based her sculpture solely on her experiences in psychoanalysis.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- The idea of having a hanging component on my piece is shared between my piece and Bourgeois'.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- The author was directly affiliated with Bourgeois and involved in the creation of her piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- Someones mental state may be able to affect their body physically.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- Bourgeois was mainly inspired by her experiences in psychoanalysis.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I inferred that Bourgeois based her sculpture solely on her experiences in psychoanalysis.
Bibliography
“Louise Bourgeois. Arch of Hysteria. 1993 | MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/audio/playlist/42/681.