Site 10 image

Site 10 Installation News 18.11.10

The color installation was assessed this afternoon.  Important points:  no need to change material to metal-matchstick maquettes work well if one allows for scale.   Colored cylinders hanging from boxes allows for more interaction between viewer and work, nothing precious here.  Freedom to move gives a "lightness" to work.     The wave has interesting light reflection properties.  Whoa!, where is the back of the wave??  Comparison of cylinders and boxes to Don Driver's work.  Some uncertainty about planning or not for the matchstick models.  I said there was planning for some, accidental in most, chaos or disorder with order, nanotechnology, molecular mechanics.  I said I was concerned about lack of curves, flats, solids.  Stick models have corners everywhere.  I am fairly sure my work was strong enough to pass.   Mentioned the decreased self-criticism during installation, liking to be on ladders, tying ropes, power of using new skills of art in producing the works, wanting to extend the works into columns, space-filling drawings, figurative images.   Karine earlier asked if the cylinders could make music-good thought.

Weds photo save

transfer of photo(s)   reduced size of image from 2.54 Mb to 130 Kb (640 x 480 pixels)

site in stallation ready Monday 15.11.10

Four days of  hard work and I have completed my first Site installation.  Located in the mezzanine of the sculpture building it consists of four elements:  a big wave, boxes and cylinders, cylinders against the wall, and matchstick constructions on a cardboard-trestle table.  The work involved a day of shifting furniture, half-day of cleaning and painting, and two and one-half days of installation.  I had asked my son to help, but he said it was my project, I should do it.  I did pace myself and took food and drink breaks.  Some of the discoveries made while installing the works were interesting-like becoming less critical as the works took shape and wrapping myself into the trestles while painting the legs.   Assessment on Thursday 130 pm.  Now to gather some notes for this and do a bit of catch-up on the housework.

NONE exhibition photos

NONE exhibition Nov 5-8 2010    I have photos in Picture File, not successful in transferring to blog yet.

Clearing out Day in Sculpture Wednesday 10.11.11

This was the big day for clearing out the studios and some of the workshops in preparation for setting up SITE 10.  Those of us there worked hard for about 3 hours shifting, throwing out, and clearing space.  Table tops were removed, the frames stacked in the foundry.  Unwanted art (usually plaster moulds, clay pieces, bits of wood, metal and cardboard) taken out to the skips.   Michele was obviously experienced in the whole procedure(it was her ninth time at supervising) and did as much work as anyone.  I avoided heavy lifting , used a barrel trolley for heavy items such as clay modelling tripods and took one or two short breaks.
  Good hard physical   work and tension seemed to drain away.
  Another topic-  student-student relationships:   I've decided to let two students know in writing that I want their debts to me cleared up ASAP.  I will send/deliver these notes tomorrow.    If the response is negative I will visit Community Law to see what options I have to obtain the goods ordered or my money back.
 

Site Stress

On Monday morning I reached a high point in personal site stress.  This is a condition where the student taking part in site becomes very agitated and has a low tolerance to normal events.  In my case, I raised my voice at someone and it took several minutes and the help of the Technician to recover.  I tried to apologise to the innocent victim but she was too upset and just asked me to leave.  I went on a walk around the Polytechnic which helped a lot.          The next day I kept busy and very quiet.  The student who I had upset seemed to have moved on in her work and I trust that she understood what had happened to me and wasn't too angry about it..  Time will tell.
It is scarey, site stress, but apparently several site participants go through it at this time of the year.  Walks, quiet times, and good-old hard work do help.     Don                                             PS the rest of the day was very busy with a special Indian lunch in town with the year 2 sculpture students and the clearing out of my works from the NONE exhibition.

Preparation for Site 10

As the final days of the teaching semester draw to a close, work on Site accelerates through-out the School.  I have stored all of my colored cylinders in the Window Box at sculpture and I am busy painting cardboard sheets and boxes.  When my Site location is available and clear I can start assembling my work.
    There will be three main works:   1)  colored cylinders hanging from painted cardboard boxes which in turn hang from the rafters in the mezzanine.  Viewers will be able to walk through the cylinders which will be free to move and form differing patterns as the boxes rotate.  There are approx 50 boxes.  2)  A series of Matchstick Constructions set on foam plastic bases.  These will be displayed at the far end of the space, set on painted cardboard sheets placed on trestle legs.  They consist of matchsticks, glue, misc items, yarn, foam plastic, cardboard.   3)At the other end of the room, after passing thru the colored cylinders, viewers will see a version of a tsunami wave.  This is formed by huge "brushstrokes" consisting of long tubes of adhesive-backed vinyl painted sea-blue-green and filled with paper.  A paper "sea spray" at the top, there may be discarded surf boards and a beach ball as well.  The wave is 3 meters high and about 6 meters wide.

    So, I will be very busy installing all of this work and I may need to spend all night in the studio one week-end.

Web Presence= Google Site established 4.11.10

My Google Site is called Don"s Delight and is the an Artist Format.  It has 3 images of my work so far.  I need to confirm that it is available world-wide.

Exhibition Nine at None Nov 5 to Nov 9 2010

Today I installed my works for this exhibition.  Some changes may be required before opening at 530 on Friday.  The works include:  19 colored cylinders, standing vertically; 4 folded latex-canvas abstract paintings; 1 folded heavy art paper abstract, star-shaped, standing on floor;  1 framed abstract padded with foam plastic and cardboard, "snake in the garden", 1 nailed decomposed MDF mounted abstract, on the floor(arrow shaped).
  I also helped Tomas shift his works and living materials to the gallery.
  I need to photograph the works in the gallery and post these on another blog.    It has been a long day with the gallery work, meeting on biculturalism, and meeting on graduation.  A bright spot was a 10 minute talk outside with Maddy-ideas for glass art, acrylic art, overseas study were discussed.  Also enjoyed group discussion with Michelle about Year 3 sculpture class 2011.

You tube video embedded

video - the mine rescue

Some difficulty loading a short video. Takes forever and then cuts out. Polytech needs greater bandwidth? (William at Learning Centre)

Will try to upload this onto YouTube and see if that goes better. I'll then embed the code for it here, Don, as we did for that other trial run. This may be the best way to tackle this exercise :-)

flikr photo downloaded at learningm centre

Here is a colorful photo with horizontal bands.  Attribution given by Fliker page http://www.flickr.com/photos/ishmaelo/297908849/

scanned image- orfelo

At the Learning Centre   Monday 18th 10 .10
Brochure plus Don's scribbles.
(picture to com)

Another image of work from the recent past- Merz room image

Image of work in progress 5.10.10

Day one

Don's classblog-2010. I went to the Learning Centre for help in setting this up.