Year 3: Semester One - week One

Starting back at DJCAD was exciting as I had a lot of ideas floating around my head and I needed to start working on them immediately. I began experimenting as soon as possible with clay and how I could recreate sections of my work through a more tactile material as clay and ceramics is still relatively fresh territory for myself - I have some experience but not a lot.

After my first week - which also happened to fall on my Birthday - I decided to head home for the weekend to gain more inspiration for my upcoming modules as I aim to focus on the environments around me and that have been around since I was little. I feel since moving away from home I have become more aware of my surroundings in a more environmental sense, how people interact, live and experience environments and the ways it affects our lives. The module I chose (The Undiscovered Landscape) will definitely help aid these thoughts I have been keeping in my head to become physical pieces. Going back to the clay, I decided to work with ceramics for the first time in a while as I like the texture and fragility of clay and how it is directly linked to the environment - in a way it felt like I was playing with the earth. Taking impressions was my first sort of point of call, as recently I've been interested in merging environmental textures caused by either natural or manmade interaction. Back home there's woodland which to me, holds a lot of significance from childhood and adolescence as it was a place where friendships were formed and memories were more than just flashbacks. Taking impressions from that place was something i wanted to do and i felt it would be a great starting point to then develop further. i took some impressions of trees and erosion from the woodland floor , some human erosion and some natural. the clay however did not work in my favour as the ground itself was dampened from a previous rain shower therefore my clay impressions were not as successful.

However, I stumbled across charred ground from burnt cars and other miscellaneous objects from the "cornies" a huge field from back home which hosts an array of river bank hideouts and plants. It's a weird place but it has some interesting things going on. I took graphite impressions of the charred ground and some photos to eventually turn into prints or 3D rendered sculptures. i even took a piece of the ground from home along side some branches and twigs. I like the idea of taking something from home and giving it a new meaning. even though these things don't mean much in the grand sense of things, i like the idea of having them and being able to keep them as momentos.

"Plastiglomerate" and Charred Ground

I've been researching into artists such as Urs Fischer and looking into interactive installations from Gentle Monster - a South Korean sunglass brand. Although there isn't much information about the artists behind said installations I feel like they have help nurture the thoughts and ideas i've been having lately about interactive and spatial installation.

"Entropy" Tree Installation - Gentle Monster Flagship Store entrance, Apgujeong, Seoul

this tree installation was kinda the main catalyst for incorporating branches and other tree-like forms into my work. exploring with forms and shapes that the natural branches would offer me was interesting and i am excited to experiment with them and see if i can replicate them using the various workshops in djcad.