For my art class, we created sculptures that were intended to show that forms of life can be recreated that represented us through our power animals and there movement. The purpose of this piece was to show that there were other ways to connect to yourself and recreate yourself while representing it in a way other than yourself. I am proud that I was able to build a sculpture that was supposed to be moved by a natural form of energy. I learned a lot about design and how you have to constantly change it in order to continue your path of movement. (For help understanding the point of this project refer to blog post called JM Nature –> Humans –> Machines Kinetic Sculptures)
Blueprint
Images/Video
The Walk – Gorilla from J M on Vimeo.
Artist Statement
The Walk (L x W x H)
Made with: Wood, Styrofoam balls, plastic nail polish remover bottle, Masking tape, Black Spray paint, Wood Glue
This piece is about creating a new form of life using a sculpture I made and the motion of my power animal while using a form of energy that comes from the natural element that is related to my power animal. To get this final product, my class took many steps. If you would like to learn more about the work it took to get the final product look at the prior art blog posts. The more recent steps we took to continue this project are that we analyzed our blueprint (at the top post), then we started to attempt to build our projects.
In the beginning I had the image that my sculpture would be made of wood and then I saw that it would take too long to cut everything and create everything from scratch so, I began my journey. I cut my wooden wheels and found some pieces of wood that could act as axles, arms or legs for my statue. I then thought about cutting out a body in the shape of a gorilla but decided later to use a plastic nail polish remover bottle as the body. I have created the head out of styrofoam balls and tape. I then made my sculptures arms and legs from paint stirring sticks. I then created the head of my gorilla which consists of 4 styrofoam balls. I then glued all of the parts of my gorilla together except for what needed to be able to move. I decided to put the head of my gorilla on the body using masking tape and a lot of it. I decided to at least try and portray it was a gorilla by spray painting it black. I painted it black to help show its a gorilla.
I have made this sculpture so that you have to move it using the ground beneath it as a source of energy (Friction). The way the statue moves is by you moving the arms forward using the wheels which then you move the back part of the sculpture forward by pushing the back part of the gorilla which then gives it the motion that helps portray that it is a gorilla in motion.