Kristen- Materialistic

Update 04/30:

It's done! I never took an after the take down photo. 

Statement: 

Pit

Kristen Cheser

Caught in a loop, nothing sounds appealing. I’m apathetic to all things I used to enjoy. There’s so many excuses for it. Burnout. Medication. Health. Loneliness. Regardless, things have to be done as the semester comes to a close. I’ve been told graduation is supposed to be a cheerful time, but I’m plagued with uncertainty. Uncertainty of where I’ll live, uncertainty of where I’ll work. All this uncertainty coupled with my existing reasons of stress left me with overwhelming emotions that I’ve depicted in Pit. In an act of catharsis, I’m acknowledging my emotions so I can let them go and move on. No matter what I feel now, I’ll continue to grow and change, just as the plant matters opposite of the pit.

Critique Sheet: 

Update 04/23:

I've changed the lighting to make it much dimmer, but there's some technical difficulties with the lights resetting. I have no problem with just resetting them every time they turn off, it is what it is!

    I have an idea to add a vine plant in the opposing corner of my pit of despair like a pothos or ivy. I think the real leaves and stems would provide a material contrast to the yarn and polyester. This may be tricky to find here in Laramie before Thursday. Examples of ivy and pothos are respectively below.

    I currently have a tiny Chinese Money Plant I could work in instead of buying a new vine plant. I could theoretically cover the vase with green yarn to tie it back to the pit of despair?

Update 04/17:

For making my That Gallery installation I'm pulling from my recent experience with burnout. Burnout has caused this swell of negative emotions including isolation, anger, fatigue, and so on that feels all encompassing. All of these negative emotions keep expanding and taking up a prominent section of my life and I just want to express that and move on like I do in therapy. I plan to have a black void in the corner with tendrils snaking out of it and reaching to all edges of the room. The colors for this section are black, red, grey, and brown.

I also intend for there to be a a small mass of hope beginning to form on the opposite side of the room. It's a hope that these negative emotions will pass as all things do. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's colors are green and perhaps brown.

Brown in both sections would add to the concept that there is good in the bad and vice versa. 

I tried hanging some tendrils and found that yarn LOVES gravity. I did not like nailing multiple sections of one tendril as it would create what looked like a kink in the tendril. My next strategy is to paste the yarn on paper and then hang the paper. 

Update 04/10:

I had another idea regarding manufactured clothing versus handmade objects. The top piece3 on the mannequin is knitted, but would have wire to give it the form around the mannequin. I have this knitted piece almost done as a bonus. The items on the floor (and possibly on the walls) would be thrifted clothing items that are made out of manmade materials like rayon and polyester with unnatural textures.

Artist Inspirations:

I went through the list pulling fabric names as well as just random names and came across a few that stand out.

"The Serpent's Trail" Ernesto Neto

This installation is entirely crochet structure. I'm drawn to the was gravity is affecting the way the fiber falls

"Fairy Rings (Mushrooms)" Kiki Smith

It's been a while since I looked at this piece and thought about how simply this implies a new environment (that being the fairy realm).

"Early Felts" Robert Morris

This is another example of me being drawn to draped fabric. 

If I were to use fabric it has connotations of luxury and opulence for using fabric specifically for drapery.

This reminded me of 1700's French fashion that was heavily focused on drapery to show off wealth. As someone who grew up poor, this concept feels foreign. Recreating opulence is like longing for something I haven't been able to attain.

This idea is abstracted from the cape piece of a 1700's dress for the idea of opulence and it parts ways for this form that emits light in this low lit room. It's made out of paper to give it a "cheaper" appearance when off set by the fabric.

Hi Kristen, So this is why you look for artist inspiration that can pull you out of the rut. Who are you looking to for this piece? Place them here. talk about this idea more.  In order to fill this space as in the iage, these pieces are going to have to be massive, so really think about this. 

    I tried really hard to come up with anything new, but I'm still in a creative rut. This idea and the Materialistic Installation are the best I've been able to do for now, but I'm going to keep trying for more ideas. With this idea I was heavily influenced by fibers, knitting, and crocheting. I'm also interested in what the distinction between craft and art are, hence using processes like knitting or crocheting. I imagine the hanging fibers are reaching towards the fallen fiber almost as if they are mourning the lost fiber they cannot reach. 

    This was originally an idea I had for the gallery installation that is being used for the small worlds project. I am not particularly fond of the idea of using the same idea over and over and over right now.