Art Studio IIIA - Week Five

Tuesday 28th March

Vincent Chevillon

https://archipels.org/tables/le-silence-d-un-monde

The thing that struck me about this lecture was the way the research was organised and presented in a visually interesting way. I was left wondering more about the actual work that the artist created, and it would have been great to talk more about the outcomes from the research.

Independant Project

Initial ideas for different forms for urns- some carved, some with different finishes, some that will breakdown over time.

Top left two designs - 

• Forms incorporating patterns that are meaningful - the family, river, ocean, native plants and creatures, fishing.
• Could be a combination of carved elements, being more colourful, with glazes, maybe using underglaze and clear glaze on the top.

Right hand side -

• using clay form the local area where his live or visited
• firing using wood sources from our garden or areas that we visited - driftwood form the beach ect
• Using materials such as plants, hair, seaweed ect sourced from our home, areas he loved to add pattern and decoration to the work.

Above - 

A vessel that decomposes overtime to return the ashes to the ground. This design is based in the Raumahunga river, the section where he would fish a lot. The vessel would wrap around a native tree.

I wondered how I would incorporate our family into the design - maybe by using three section for each of us, and Glen's ashes as the part that joins it all, and all the elements eventually become part of the tree.

Research

Raewyn Atkinson

E kōrero ana ngā rākau: the trees are talking, 2019 

https://raewynatkinson.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Raewyn_Atkinson_Tear_off_Publication_V16.pdf

The above work is a series of photographs form the moving image work - 'I am in paradise II'

Kōwhai ngutu kākā mā (white kākā beak) trees were planted in a series of unfired clay urns. As they grow, the clay breaks down and returns to the earth.  Kōwhai ngutu kākā mā are a threatened species in the wild and only found in New Zealand. The trees were gifted to Waikereru Ecosanctuary which has been set up for ecological restoration.

With this work, I really enjoy the way the artist is returning the clay back to earth and the artwork itself is benefiting the environment and giving back rather than taking from our natural resources. I think it speaks really well the cyclic nature of the natural work - growth, death and decay and I feel this is an idea that could work well with the urns, the returning the body back to the earth. and adding to the growth as it happens.

This is an idea we have previously embraced as a family, with the placentas from both of our children being buried under a plant, that has been grown and nurtured for them.

Friday 31st March

Forth and Third year crits