"Site" Sculpture

"All Grown Up"

3' x 2' x 2'

Wood Stump, Book (Found Object), Watercolour Paper and Paint

December 2021

The objective of this assignment was to create a sculpture that is made to be placed in a specific location. The sculpture in turn must be related to the location in which it is placed. To begin we were tasked with presenting three proposals of "site" pieces. Afterwards we are to choose one to execute as the final piece (as best as possible considering resources). These are my three Proposals:

 Three Proposed Ideas:

Idea 1:

Tree sculpture made of chicken wire and paper mache newspapers/catalogues. Placed in the area of a logging site, returning the "trees" in their new form back to where they came from- but not really. 

OR

Place a large book on top of a tree stump left at a logging site, like the tree grew into a book. That is what it became. 

Sketch 

Alternate idea sketch

Site Images 

(Images from: forest.weebly.com)

Idea 2:

Sculpture of a person, with positive words circling around a golden sun coming out of their mind. Placed on the University of Lethbridge Campus. Sun represents University Logo, and the words are attributes gained through post-secondary education at the university. 

Sketch 

Site Image

(Image from: globalnews.ca)

Idea 3:

"Every Child Matters"

Hundreds of mini gravestones with orange handprints on them placed into the lawn of a Catholic church. Representing the missing children found under residential school sites run by the church. 

Sketch

(Images from: everybodyhastobesomewhere.blogspot)

Final Executed Idea:

 For my final execution I chose to go with Proposal 1 option 2. While I feel very strongly about my ‘Every Child Matters’ project proposal I felt that it would be best executed with community involvement from many people including those from indigenous communities. In that case and with time restrictions, I executed my next best idea. Best case would have been, weather permitting to go to a logging area with stumps left behind. However, with my resources I found a stump available to me to demonstrate the concept. I used the largest book I could find (found object) to show desired size and inserted what my pages would look like if I were to create an entire book myself. The pages are sturdy paper with non-diluted watercolour paints in abstract design/shape scattered on the paper. The idea is that when the book is exposed to the wet elements like rain or snow the paint pigment will dilute and create its own beautiful bleed pattern. 

(University of Lethbridge, Art 2032- Object and Space, December 2021)