So, I suppose it is time to post about the assignment we so recently completed (on Monday, March 15th, to be exact). For this project, we were asked to collaborate on a piece of art that would have some sort of interesting relationship to the body. I think that both my collaboration with Zach and our piece turned out very well.
We started by simply coming to each other with our individual ideas. Playing with the fabric didn't bring on any major epiphanies for me, but when I saw the black flower that Lizzie had constructed whilst experimenting in class, an image immediately popped into my head of a sarcophagus-type structure fashioned out of wood to mimic the human form (although more angular and less curvy than a traditional sarcophagus). The inside was covered with flowers made out of black fabric, creating an interesting texture, and a light bulb was inserted through the top (just above the head of the person who would theoretically be standing inside). A number of things about this mental picture interested me. I liked the idea of constricting the human form, rather than accommodating it, and I thought that the associations with death that the structure would probably conjure up would add layers to this concept of corporeal constriction. Aesthetically, I also found it strong in that the form contained multiple layers of contrast. The boxiness of the structure opposed the flowing nature of the lines discernible within the flowers. The darkness of the flowers contrasted with the stark brightness of the light bulb. The allusions that the "sarcophagus" shape and the unpolished wood exterior might make to archaeological digs (culture) stood in distinction to the flowers (nature), whose overabundance might indicate an organic overgrowth (a natural reclamation of cultural space).
Zach had some different ideas - although they turned out to be quite compatible with my own. He was interested in creating a more sprawling space using repetitive forms evocative of ribs, the spine, etc. We were, however, both intrigued by opposition - Zach wanted to make a curvy structure using linear forms (i.e. post and lintel architraves of varying heights covered in fabric to create a a curvilinear exterior) - and, if my memory serves me correctly, he wanted his space, like the one I had in mind, to be dark. Finally, Zach was similarly attracted to the idea of playing with light and dark. The variations in height of his modular forms would accommodate varying amounts of light, and he talked about starting with small shapes that would gradually become larger, so that the light that entered the space would mirror the trajectory of light entering a camera, or exiting a projector.
We both appreciated each other's ideas, and our project grew from our initial instinct to combine them - insert the "sarcophagus" into the hollow within the "ribs"; we basically just edited and progressed from that starting point, exploring shared themes of the intersection between life and death, the interplay between light and shadow, etc. And we definitely helped each other along the way. Zach took over the responsibility of putting the basic structure of the room together, and I jumped into making roses, which I knew would take a long time. But whenever Zach needed help (e.g. stretching fabric across the ceiling and stapling it on one side while he stapled it along the other) or advice, I would provide it, and vice versa.
I would say that the second part of the collaboration (i.e. after the first part - the concept) truly began on the Sunday before the project was due, when Zach had finished creating the "coffin". We carefully began piecing the interior together and feeding off of each other's energies. To give one good example of this productive back-and-forth dynamic, after seeing the "coffin" shape covered in the same black fabric as the interior of the space (a frustratingly difficult task which Zach had taken upon himself to complete), I was dissatisfied. There were a number of pockets and bubbles that were not aesthetically pleasing, and, having been less than thrilled with the appearance of my previous project (the furniture assignment), I was not exactly willing to settle. I started covering the interior of the "sarcophagus" with strip after strip of black electrical tape in order to give the planes of the interior the flatness we had been attempting to achieve. Unfortunately, however, we ran out of electrical tape before the inside was finished. Zach then came up with the idea of meticulously cutting strips of fabric, which would mimic strips of electrical tape, to cover the interior instead. We were constantly coming up with solutions to problems the other person was having with the project, or simply coming up with interesting ideas. There is much more I could say, but this post is becoming quite lengthy, so I think I will stop for now. But anyways, we failed in certain respects, and succeeded in others. On to the next project!
