Kristen C- Small World

Update 04/30:

Statement: "Obliterated by Flowers" is inspired by a quote from Yayoi Kusama. When referring to a childhood trauma she saw flowers and referred to the visual as if she herself had been obliterated by the flowers. In the concept of this piece I am to depict the hollow silhouette of a person to represent the unatached feeling one may experience as a result of the trauma. The bright colors contrast the morbid meaning and created a disorienting effect pulling apart the red flowers and pink walls.

Critique sheet:

Updates 03/20:

Here are some old photos of all the pieces of my small world. Now the pink cardstock is in the jar. I've also added tissue paper inside to cover up any seams and holes. The embroidery is also complete and currently setting with some glue in the jar which will hopefully stick!

History of Installation

ChatGPT: 

I had a really interesting experience with ChatGPT where I don't think artists we talked about in the History of Installation were used. This paper credited the early installation to Kazimir Malevich's "Black Box" which appears to be a painting, not installation art. 

I think my inexperience with AI may be showing and if I were to tweak the prompt could get a more accurate history of installation art.

There are many artists who were not even mentioned such as Yayoi Kusama and the artists who appropriated her work. Including a vast array of installation artists throughout history rather than just the modern art era.

The first installation art created are the Lascaux Cave painting of 15,000 BCE. The closest documentation of contemporary installation art starting is Allan Kaprow's "Yard" where a room is filled with tires.

Updates? 

Updates 03/13

Idea 1:

This idea is most likely what I will go with as this is the container I will use. In Contemporary Art Theory we briefly talked about being convergent or divergent in your process and working with little modules that I can easily change as I go sounds appealing. That's why both landscapes are drastically different: I can't decide what type of landscape. In a large scale installation textured pillows to depict a landscape sounds interesting. It's reminiscent of the installation of the artist who cast boxes in plastic. I can't find their name at this moment. I imagine people would be able to walk through this new little world. At the top the yellow crocheted net that light would fall through to cast shadows. I start to feel like that is too much going on at once though. 

While looking at Installations I found Thomas Hirschhorn. The pathway he has set through the room, but some area are still unattainable which is very similar to what I was thinking with the set pathways

Idea 2:

This small round container is the home of my Pupa idea where I felt a tiny pupa that in full room scale would be roughly 20 feet tall. This can is about 3 inches so the pupa would still be tiny. I like the idea of a surreal trail to walk through and there would be fuzz everywhere, but it gets denser towards the pupa. 

Idea 3:

This is another rendition of the crocheted light, but with just this idea so the shadows don't overshadow the other elements. 

Another Idea:

This idea was initially for my installation in the That Gallery. Inspired from the documentary of Yayoi Kusama (Kusama:Infinity) there was a phrase about this field of flowers Kusama may have endured a trauma in. The phrase is "Obliterated by Flowers." Whenever I hear someone has endured a trauma I immediately plug in my own trauma as what must be the trauma. Upon hearing "obliterated by flowers" I wanted to depict being overwhelmed by flowers as well as what feelings I experienced of my trauma. Isolated yet overwhelmed, sad yet relieved I don't have to endure the trauma any more, stuck in my body while also disassociating from myself.

In the spirit of Kusama, I think it would be fitting (and less clean up) to give out the flowers at the opening.

With the scale of handmade flowers I wonder if I should scale it down and use it for the small world installation. I hesitate because I am very partial to this idea and seeing it come to be in full scale. 

David Urbanke photographed the cast of the Sandman and I loved the color saturation. My color scheme was very inspired by this. 

I was also inspired by James Turrell. I really am curious about how to work with lights and play with colors in that aspect.