Tumblr

Hi there.
As you might probably know, in my previous posts I have been posting links to my Tumblr. This is because all my original posts were posted in Tumblr, and it was simply too taxing to dig out all the photos in my Mac and posting them all over again on Blogger. Hence, I'll link you to the page if you are interested.
Currently on my Tumblr, there are a few photo sets on Photography. Namely, Food and Night (kind of Bokeh-like effect). The most recent post is one on a birthday card assignment the school has tasked us to do.


Ciao for now!

Lucia Hartini

Again, click here to read the full post.
Thanks.

Rene Magritte

Please read full post here on my Tumblr.
Meh. I'm too lazy to transfer everything over. My bad.

MC Escher

*Read the full post here.

**Read the 2nd post on Reptiles here.

This video featured his famous works and Reptiles appeared somewhere in the middle of the video. That was just an introduction to his works and common artistic styles and the work I will be talking about (or rather Feldman’s criticize about today. Interesting, no? Well, who exactly is MC Escher?

His full name is Maurits Cornelis Escher (which explains the initials MC Escher). According to his official webpage, he is one of the world’s most renowned graphic artists. He can be classified under the movement of Surrealism (in my opinion), because of his famous manipulations with composition, by incorporating exquisite structures which pay homage to mazes and puzzles, playing with optical illusions in his 2D art works. I guess he was truly a master of his art, as there is nobody else as refined in this area as he is. Although his works exhibits the concept of abstraction and fantasies, his works are composed (like Salvador Dali and many other Surrealist artists) with photorealism, which I am a huge fan of. Ha. 

Apart from creating sketches and occasional paintings, he made use of other mediums. There has been a record saying that during his lifetime (1898-1972), he has a whopping amount of 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches! That is divine, no, really. 

To learn about lithography, do watch this gorgeous video, that highlights the art of lithography here.

Here’s a fascinating fact about the late artist, he was left-handed. I guess left-handers are geniuses? I for one has many friends who are left-handers and they are braniacs and crazy good in their works and all. Famous artists throughout the centuries like Michelangelo and Lenoardo Da Vinci were also left handed. 

Escher is most renowned for his complex works such as Ascending and Descending, Relativity, his Transformation Prints, such as Metamorphosis I, Metamrphosis II and Metamorphosis III, Sky Water I or Reptiles (which I will be featuring in this blog).

Reptiles, Marius Cornelius Escher, 1943 (Lithograph)

The next blog post will be an extensive and comprehensive (I hope) analysis of Reptiles (above) and a comparison between Reptiles and another piece of work called Cycle by Sergey Cherednichenko. I will also be ending the next post with another appropriate video. Keep reading!

Frida Kahlo

To see the photos please click here.

My Frida Kahlo impression. (I tried)

“I paint flowers so that they will not die.” - Frida Kahlo

Pamela Campagna

See photos here from my Tumblr.

I came across this amazing Italian artist on the web. As a student who is extremely interested in portraiture, the way Pamela Campagna constructed her portraits really intrigued me. Also, it reminded me of a fellow peer, Fang Ni’s style of making art. I remember Fang Ni also had such an idea in using nails and styrofoam boards to create the human face. It was very interesting to see this idea in a full-time professional artist! 

Analysing the techniques employed by the artist, Pamela Campagna while creating the face using spools and spools of thread, I realized the time and effort put in by another artist again. She had created the portrait by putting nails into a wooden board and then using thread to create figurative elements of the face and body. She used various colors of string to suggest highlights and shadows on the face i.e. Black and Grey string and she crossed the strings continuously to create geometric patterns that in turn create the textures of the respective features of the face. For example, in areas whereby the features are more defined like the eyebrows, she would cross the string more often, and thus, the eyebrows would be darker in colour in comparison to other features on the face.

Her realistic depiction of her subject matter in the form of an abstract Cubist way of presentation (using strings to create lines and jagged shapes) demonstrates her ability to create art in the most creative ways possible which are extremely admirable. The establishment of the face of her subject matters in proportionate measurements also show that she most likely (I think) had previously studied and researched a fair bit on the facial anatomy of humans (just like Leonardo Da Vinci who in his case did study a lot on human anatomy). By the way, both of them were Italian!

Her dedication and commitment to her works is commendable. Beautiful pieces of work. A true Italian indeed.

Ilian Iliev

Taken from Tumblr. See photos here.

Who loves food? Who loves art? I do, and that is why I love this artist. He does food art. Basically, he uses knife to carve on another type of medium which is relatively uncommon in the art world. Although, there has been increasing occurrences of food art in the art world, I feel that Ilian Iliev is the master of this art. Nobody carves fruits like apples, mushrooms and watermelons as well as him. 

Ilian Iliev usually creates motifs and patterns on the surface of the fruit by manipulating the skins and the flesh of the food itself. Sometimes, he makes use of the thickness and natural coloured patterns of the skin of the food itself. 

For example, in his watermelon carvings, he played with the patterned green surfaces when he carved his fruit. He usually carves patterns which consists of a lot of curvilinear and rounded forms. He employs the use of fluidity in his detailed patterns by incorporating the use of circles, swirls and waves, reminiscent to the late Post-Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh who also used a lot of swirls in his paintings like Starry Starry Night and series of Self-Portraits. 

His works usually portray patterns of flowers. For example, he likes to carve images of roses on apples and mushrooms (seen above). His skill in doing so is really revolutionary as the forms are so realistic and it seems as though a rose had really grown out of the apple/mushroom itself. Pretty amazing! 

In the work with the egg, Ilian Iliev cleverly cracks the eggshell with precise straight lines and stacks them together creating a stairs-like effect. The white colour of the shell also suggests a pure and angelic kind of atmosphere. The rose at the top of the shell further emphasizes on the heavenly-like aura of the work. 

In general, his works consists of huge amounts of details in his patterns as he varies his deep gouges to shallow carvings. Thus there are different depths and dimensions in his works. 

There is also another aspect of art in his works actually - Photography. Ilian Iliev is a food photographer by profession so he plays with the angles of which he takes photos of his subject matter (in most cases will be food). Hence, his photos also reflect his artistic take on photography and his positioning of his art in the photographs. 

Seriously, his works are so beautiful that I cannot bear eating those works. From afar they look like waxed candles that were sculpted instead of food as the carvings are just too accurate and impeccable. 

I love food, I love art and I most definitely love food art. Peace.

Dalton J. Paul Getty

Taken from Tumblr. See photos here.

This artist is really one of the most innovative sculptors I have ever seen. I have never come across any artist that has impressed me so much with both skill and innovation. He is not like the Renaissance sculptors, he is also not like the Contemporary conceptual artists. 

He is a true innovator if his own, coming up with the most interesting and original form of idea by using the most peculiar medium ever - graphite. To put it specifically, he works with the graphite (carbon) that is found in pencils. Everyday pencils, that one sees and uses in their day-to-day activities. Be it HB, 2B or 6B pencils, he works with them, in all shapes and sizes!

From the pictures above, you can clearly see how much skill and accuracy is required to carve out these exquisite and minuscule sculptures from piece of lead in a pencil. Taking out a ruler to measure the diameter of lead, its less than 1.0cm, and how little is that amount of working area and artist has?! Its almost a microscopic form of work already. 

Not only does this necessitate patience and adeptness, this is also a newfangled form of art! In my opinion, this marks the beginning and sets the standards of a new type of sculptural work. 

After some research on Dalton J. Paul Getty, he has stated that he has spent a lot of time and effort to carve out his forms and figures from the lead by using specialised tools (knives), a magnifying glass of some sort and a great deal of patience. In fact, he has stated that he has over 200 broken lead pencils in his art studio after many futile failure attempts of carving. The alphabet collection (A-Z) that he carved out on pencil lead took him a total of 5 years to sculpt. This speaks volumes about his patience and passion. I think that not many artists would spend so much time and strenuous physical and mental exertion on a single series of work. He is really passionate about his work and I salute him for this and this is why I chose him as one of the inspirations to me personally.

His miniature sculptures vary in subject matter. They include a shoe (which was so realistic), some machinery industry tools like the saw and even chains (which I thought was definitely challenging to carve on his part). The nature of the graphite, like the colour and surface texture of the lead reminds me of the texture of the black bronze that past sculptors like Auguste Rodin used when he created the Thinker from the Divine Comedy. That smooth finish of the graphite and the dark black grayish hue of the graphite is reminiscent to the bronze used in The Thinker. It is also almost abit like the material in Tosca, primarily used by Southeast Asian sculpters like Dede Supria.

Dalton J. Paul Getty is unquestionably an inspiration for me. I hope to possess the patience and skill he endows. 

And the coursework shall be the platform. Hopefully.  

Jacob Sutton

Taken from Tumblr.

See photos here.

Need I say more? 

Jacob Sutton is a…

Photographer.

Prodigy.

I admire his work. Okay, I admit that I have a soft spot for pictures which are monochromatic, especially if they are black and white in colour. Yet, Jacob Sutton’s work is just oh so phenomenal. I love how he is able to portray abstraction and so much expression in a still image, a photograph of his. I love how he is able to capture movement within a picture. Is it his camera? Does he possess magic or something? Sometimes I wonder, really, I do. 

Well, in the above pictures, Jacob Sutton has taken photos of his models underwater. Ah, the fluidity of the picture, the way the model’s facial features are highlighted and the background is omitted in a subtle and gentle way. That really struck me. 

In addition, the model’s hair flows with the water and her facial expression seems quite paradoxical to me! She seems to be in a state of tranquility, nirvana perhaps… 

At the same time, somehow, I get a sense of mystery, foreboding or something. It is as though the model is a beauty in disguise. Like a thorn in the rose. Ha, i know my analogies are weird, but it seems like at any moment now she is going to bite the viewer (you) any second. I guess I am also rather affected by the notion of beauty and evil meeting in which these photographs exemplifies surprisingly!

I love the exposure of the pictures, the contrast. Not too dark, not too bright, just right. These images just calls for me to stop and stare and ponder about what the artist is tying to portray, simultaneously, enchanting me with that divine depiction. 

Once again, great photographs, great photographer. Jacob Sutton’s my favorite photographer now.

A little background research on him shows that he is a professional photographer and director of short video productions. He has shot several editorial shots for luxury brands like Burberry and Swavorski crystals. At the same time, he has taken photographs of London-based musicians like Florence + The Machine’s lead singer Florence Welch and the songstress Lana Del Rey. His resume says it all!

A true genius.

Link to his page: http://www.jacobsutton.com/

White Nights

Oh Land - White Nights (Non-official Music Video)

**Please read full post and watch vimeo video here.

“These dreams under my pillow

In the twilight of these white nights

These dreams under my pillow 

In the twilight of these white nights

Of these white nights.”

Those were the lyrics of White Nights. Its obvious that the song is (in a way) abut dreams right? I guess that’s why the director(s) of this video decided to imbue fantasy-like elements inside the “music video” for this amazing song. 

I should make this clear first. The above video was not made by Oh Land. Its like a fan-made video that was made to enter a competition by Vimeo (the video hosting website). When I watched it, I immediately thought of the references made to Salvador Dali, a pioneer of Surrealist ideas. Yes, all those imaginative qualities in the video like the weird steps, the glitter, the organic shapes (on the lead in the video), the vivid arbitrary hues and splashes of colour was by Dali himself! His paintings encompassed of all these details.  Those eyeballs hanging in the background were also reminiscent to Dali’s work! 

I find it amazing how modern productions commend the works of previous masters in Art history, and how these artists actually still continue to make an impact in the world of art, even in music videos, a fan-made one in particular. This is pure genius.

And did I mention that this song is splendid itself? Ha.

Dissected

Taken from Tumblr.

Photos here.

The great masters. (Clockwise from top) Salvador Dali of the revolutionary Surrealist movement, Vincent Van Gogh of the dynamic Post-Impressionism art movement, and Pablo Picasso of the groundbreaking Cubist movement. All of which had definitive art styles and produced work that highly emphasized on their own unique set of ideals, mindsets, perspectives. Despite several setbacks (particularly Van Gogh), they pursued their arts career with poise and confidence. 

Each frame of each artist shows the innards of each of them. As seen from the pictures, their guts (or rather, their digestive systems) are painted with regards to the respective artist’s late artistic style (while they were still alive). 

For Dali, his heart and his lungs are painted in an almost idealistic manner. Forms are well-defined, yet possessing a mystical-like quality, reminiscent to Dali’s artistic style.

Alternatively, with regards to Van Gogh, his internal organs are painted with such freedom, vitality and vigor. Arbitrary colours, just like how Van Gogh himself painted.

Finally, for Picasso, I can use one word to exemplify the way his organs were painted - Abstraction. Flat planes of colour (with little blending), (almost like a cartoon, I would say), delineated lines with varying thickness, inproportionate (and unrecognizable) forms! Honestly, who else but Picasso himself would paint this way?

I love how these 3 frames pay homage to 3 pioneer artists that impacted the course of art history. Splendid.

Dance

Nanyang Chinese Dance Society presents 心愿 • 舞悦 2012.

The photos above were all taken by my Dad using Canon 60D and I edited the photos personally using iPhoto. All of which are dance photos! All the editing was done based on the mood and characteristic of the dance. Do enjoy! 

Kimono

AEP Year 3 Paper Kimono Design

In Year 3, we were told to construct a kimono and decorate it in anyway we wanted. Be it, flower prints, animal prints, tribal prints via acrylics, watercolors or oils, or even using a collage-style technique and pasting different materials on top. The main question was: what represented you? What type of kimono can portray one’s character, personality, likes and dislikes? I listed out what I loved, or at least, things in society that meant much to me. The idea of consumerism then came in. 

In this day and age, it seems like the world has progressed so much that labels and brands fill up almost every part of our lives. Especially because I am a teen that has spent most of my life living in Singapore, a much celebrated urbanised society itself, it is mostly natural that labels and brands would constitute much if my life. Truth be told, I do not even know whether to support or oppose consumerism. I just feel that the world has become so commercialized that people are forgetting about how traditional they used to be and how these various brands and labels have brought to so much effect in their lives. 

Thus, by making this “print” or pattern/motif for this kimono, I seek to highlight the importance and the impact these individual brands have in our lives. The kimono itself is already a piece of renowned piece of garment known by many and it represents the Japanese culture which is also highly-regarded as a commercialized and advanced nation. Hence, by using this “print” on a kimono, I think that my message can be clearly conveyed. Applying this idea of commercialism in particular to the context - Japan, it also makes logical sense.

Firstly, our teacher, Mr Stephen Robertson brought us step by step to the constructing of the template of the kimono. We were provided huge pieces of white paper, and we folded and taped the parts of the paper together using masking tape and using paper mache techniques. It was a long and tedious process that lasted for about 2-3 weekly 3-hour long AEP lessons as we had to measure that kimono properly and ensure that both sides (inclusive of the sleeves) are balanced, with the same length and all. We also had to blow-dry the kimono so that all the wet glue and tape will dry out. 

When it was completed, we had to prime the paper with white emulsion paint, just like how people do when preparing a canvas for oil-painting. 2 coats of paint had to be applied which took much effort and time. Finally, the brainstorming of the design of the kimono came. The base colour (background) the medium and other aspects were some of the considerations that had to be undertaken. That was when the research started and the idea of commercialism struck me.

Well, the designs on the kimono are clearly logos of the various international brands in the world. They come from companies in the various industries, food, fashion and even television. Starbucks, Chanel and Glee are respective logos/trademarks of each of the industries listed above respectively. At first, I was thinking of how was I going to place these logos on the kimono itself. I wanted to make sure that the logos were as vivid (colours) and precise as possible. Hence, I explored various mediums such as oils and acrylics. Yet, I felt that by painting the logos, I could not give a sense of depth through contrasting textures on my kimono. I decided to look for a material that was bright and strong in colour, hat could be easily manipulated and gave a different texture. It was then I thought of using felt. Felt is like a cloth-like spongy material that could bring the surface of the kimono three-dimensionality. It was also bold in clear in color. It can be cut easily, stuck and assembled easily on the kimono itself, which was what I had been looking for. Thus, I searched for various colors of felt in the local art supplies store Artfriend and I found several colors of felt that I could use for the logos! I also sourced for felt in school and I was lucky as there were some pieces left in school that were unused. Some came in whole pieces while some were remnants. Still, I could colors that I wanted and I was ecstatic.

Basically, I printed out the logos and traced them onto the felt using chalk and cut each piece out with scissors (for dressmaking). This allowed precision and accuracy in the proportions of the logos. Thus, I could mimic the composition and orientation of the logos as much as possible. I cut out almost 20-30 different logos. 

Again, I had to think about how I wanted to assemble these logos and form the “print” of the kimono. As the print itself was already quite modern, I wanted the orientation of the prints to be as traditional as possible, so as to connect the theme of commercialism to the theme of tradition. Thus, I researched on designs of traditional Japanese kimonos and also some Korean Hanboks. I was rather intrigued and influenced by how to flowers and sakura designs on the Hanboks of Korean royalty were composed. They seemed to cluster together at a particular part of the robe and as such equal amounts of positive and negative space is created. Boh sides of the robe are also relatively balanced and symmetrical. As seen from the kimono I have created, I used the Korean Hanbok ideas on my kimono’s front.

For the back, I wanted the composition to be slightly more complex, and I wanted to include a human inside to draw a link between logos (its effects) and mankind. By including a person on the back of the kimono, this link can be drawn. The person I have chosen was from the newspapers and he seems to be looking up which was why I chose him and placed him at the bottom of the robe. Thus, by placing the logos on top of him, it can be seen like he is thinking of the commercial brands and influenced by these brands. Or one can view this with another perspective like he is surrounded by commercialism in his life. Looking at the scale of the logos compared to him, the logos are so much bigger in size and numbers, which suggests like he is “drowning” in urbanisation and so influenced by it.

This is the whole point of this kimono - Commercialism and Human. 

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy-Inspired Art Project Review

Four Seasons, 2012

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

As promised, I have uploaded the pictures of the short-lived art piece that I did recently inspired by the phenomenal Andy Goldsworthy.

Well, before I start blabbing on about my artwork, I shall talk about the marvellous works and the unique art personality/style of the artist himself.

First and foremost, one may ask, who is this artist and what makes him so remarkable? The British artist who was born in 1956 was a naturalist. He was concerned with, not money, not development, not war, but nature.

Yes, nature. He responses to nature, places and seasons. Making use of natural (mostly biodegradable/environmentally-friendly) materials like leaves, sticks and stones. I would say that he works with almost anything he can find in the wild! How practical eh?

Also, majority of Andy Goldsworthy’s works are made plein air (outdoors) and is left out in the open to slowly disintegrate, fall or melt. Certainly, he takes photos of his works and records them,collecting them as a portfolio/book before leaving it.

The artist is the perfect example of manipulation of composition. He creates works by experimenting with the orientations of his materials, arranging them and piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Interesting and entirely avant garde! Analysing most of his works, I also realised that he had a flare and passion for swirls and curvilinear lines (inspired by the late Post-Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh perhaps?). His works Ice Spiral: Treesoul and Pebbles Broken & Scraped (which can be viewed in this link: http://www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html) are demonstrations of this observation I made. A justification for this idea can be like how nature is like a spiral, like a cycle. Things are born, and nurtured. They grow and eventually they die. This whole cycle repeats. It could be that Andy Goldsworthy wanted to push for this message through his work? Maybe.

Rounding up, we are now certain that Andy Goldsworthy created artwork related to nature and offered new intepretations to nature. He responsed tonature.

Four Seasons is the title of the work I have created with respects to Andy Goldsworthy’s visions and artistic styles. It is a work of 4 series, whereby I am picturing 4 scenes of 4 seasons in a year, namely - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Why seasons? Seasons are evidently a huge part of nature. It is a natural occurrence. Just as Andy Goldsworthy was so fascinated by this cycle, I am too, and I have thus created a mini series of work to show my perspective and take on seasonal changes and how my materials can be manipulated in terms of composition and style to show my views on nature.

In these 4 scenes, I am using the charcoal piece (wood) to act as a symbol of a tree. It undergoes all 4 seasons, and I am in a way, documenting this process, by taking pictures of it in each of the season.

Spring:

Flowers on Tree (Coal)

Spring is the beginning of a year. It is a fresh start and is almost very cheery and bright. Flowers are also often associated with spring. The hues of pink, red and violet are most representative of spring. The placing of flowers on the coal acts as a symbol of the season of spring and the beginning of a year or a cycle. They add vibrancy, and rejuvenation to the work! The flowers on the coal also brighten up the coal, creating a cheerful and spirited atmosphere, just as spring should be.

Summer:

Leaves on Tree (Coal)

Summer is the second season of the year. It is when things grow and evolve. Singapore experiences summer all year long, and I have observed lush greenery in here. Trees are covered with crowns and crowns of green leaves. Thus, in this segment of Four Seasons, I have chosen to use leaves to depict the summer season and the growth summer encompasses. This green contrasts with the pink on the flowers previously in spring, which indicates a change, or a metamorphosis. A new season, a new style is shown. Or rather, I feel that this shows the second stage of a cycle.

Autumn:

Pencil Shavings on Tree (Coal)

This is the third stage of the cycle – autumn. Thus, there is change again in nature. Anyway, pencil shavings are actually made of wood. I feel that pencil shavings are extremely representative of the fall season mainly due to its colour. It is tinted brown, nearly oak-coloured. In other words, it comes in a very warm shade. Furthermore, its edges are painted red (because of the pencil coating itself), also suggesting a warmer tone, creating a very cozy atmosphere, suggestive of autumn. The angular, geometrical shaped shavings resemble maple leaves too, which are known icons of autumn. Hence, it is evident that these elements push the idea of autumn and evokes a homely and comfortable setting. Seeing this, it jogs my memory of one of my favourite holiday song by 90s’ musician Billy Gilman, “Warm and Fuzzy”!

Winter:

Hole-punched paper on Tree (Coal)

I bring to you the last segment of the series, which is the winter segment, symbolic of another seasonal change in nature. The “snow” you see on the coal are actually hole-punched papers. Their repetitive circular shapes resemble snowfall. The crispness and whiteness of the paper is also reminiscent to snow. One is thereby able to feel tranquility and calmness amidst the paleness of the paper, once again, like how winter feels like. In addition, snowfall is much uncontrolled. The numerous tiny punched pieces of paper is able to be sprinkled randomly (like salt) on the coal and this illusion of liberation and freedom is created. The white hue of the paper seemingly juxtaposes against the cool coal-black colour of the charcoal. A strong sense of contrast is evoked in the viewer. On the whole, serenity and Zen is an apparent mood in this stage – winter.

As I look back at Four Seasons, I feel that I have encompassed Andy Goldsworthy’s theme on nature partially. I have utilised natural materials, and I have depicted seasonal change (a part of nature). Also, I have manifested the idea of playing around with composition to create symbols relative to nature. Certainly, I feel that I could have done more, or perhaps created a larger-scale work.

I hope you have enjoyed this post! Thanks for reading!

Au Naturale.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Mini Art Project/Experimentation (with Svena)

**Photos on tumblr here.

During one of the AEP SOVA lessons, we learnt about a very interesting couple (not kidding). 2 artists, with extraordinary ideas and aesthetic visions. They obviously impacted 20th Century art (Modern/Contemporary Art) with their works. As the title of this post suggests, they are undeniably THE Christo and Jeanna-Claude.

A husband-wife partnership based in the Big Apple (New York), the duo explore the globe to create incredibly large-scale (literally) and avant garde projects.

What do they do exactly? Now, this closely relates to what Svena (my peer) and I did for this mini experimentation work we did (more later). They wrapobjects. Starting with mini objects like bottles, tins and cans, as time passed, they wrapped things that were bigger. Interested in textures (crumpled paper, fabrics), they constantly changed their wrappings. Their famous works include the Pont Nuef (Paris) and Reichstag (Berlin). Both were historical monuments of their respective cities. Their works suggest and conceals the subject matter which is really (in my opinion) what makes the work so exciting and intriguing.

Another big project the couple did was the Wrapped Coast, 1968-69 (New South Wales, Australia: Little Bay). According to their official website it was stated that “One million square feet (92,900 square meters) of erosion-control fabric (synthetic woven fiber usually manufactured for agricultural purposes) were used for the wrapping. 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) of polypropylene rope, 0.6 inches (1.5 centimeters) in diameter, tied the fabric to the rocks. Ramset guns fired 25,000 charges of fasteners, threaded studs and clips to secure the rope to the rocks.” Link:http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/major_coast.shtml (Accessed: 26 February 2012)

The materials used in Wrapped Coast were either reused again in other art projects or recycled. The whole project was solely-funded by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their main source for funds were from the sales of their preparatory and research drawings.

The work held a monochromatic colour scheme, with alot of textures (the drapery of the fabric on the rock edges) and lines (coast against the horizon in the sky). I feel that the work largely reminded me of Cubist works especially those from Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The geometric shapes (rocks) in the work were reminiscent to Pablo Picasso’s Women with a Guitar (Ma Jolie), 1911. Gosh, those fragmented and chopped-up forms in Ma Jolieresembled the rocks in Wrapped Coast.

The project utilised alot of manpower and all of them were duly paid except for 11 students (who refused). Professional mountain-climbers were engaged to assist in the construction of the work which took approximately a month.

The coast was wrapped for 10 weeks until 28 October 1969. Upon unwrapping, the site was returned to its original state. Proceeds of the admission of viewing the work were used as charity to Prince Henry Hospital (owner of Little Bay).

Enough of Christo and Jeanne-Claude! One may ask, so what did Svena and I do? Basically, we were given some cling wrap and asked to roam around the school and find an object and wrap it. Sounds cool much?

We needed to find a subject matter that was unique! I must say that the school is quite small, so it was rather difficult to choose our target (to wrap). Interested in bright-coloured objects, we hunted. In the end, we saw Mr McDonalds sitting outdoors near the outdoor basketball court. Apalled by his awkward yet fascinating body language (as he had his arms hung out mid-air) and his position (on a bench facing the basketball court), we wanted to maximise our chances of making this awkward Mr McDonalds fit in to his surroundings by… WRAPPING! Thus, we finally hose to wrap Mr McDonalds (don’t ask me why its in school; it just is.)

How could we wrap Mr McDonalds such that he could fit in nicely to his surroundings then? After all, he does have to fit in to “society” (in this case, the school compound) right? Ha. An idea struck us. Due to the fact tha Mr McDonalds was positioned in an area near the outdoor basketball court, we decided to make it seem as though he was one of the basketball players or coach in the school. How so?

As the Basketball team was training nearby, we requested to use one of their basketballs and attach it to the hand of Mr McDonalds. This way, it will look like Mr McDonalds (now a basketball player) was in the midst of bouncing a basketball, fitting into his surroundings. We positioned the ball below the palm of Mr McDonalds and used the cling wrap provided and wrapped the ball to his hand. We experimented with the thickness of the cling wrap. In some areas, we used more wrap, and in some, we used less. This created a variation in intensity of the colour of the cling wrap (from white to transparent) which in turn causes a spectrum of textures on the ball and the hand.

We then proceeded onto wrapping the upper body of Mr McDonalds, to create a balance with the wrapped hand and ball. This time, we wrapped the body with a particular orientation, round and round the waist of Mr McDonalds. We minimised the usage of wrapping his waist in other directions. Hence, horizontal lines are created spanning across his waist and chest area. This was our form of experimentation with the cling wrap. Contrasting the wrapped ball (whereby wrapping was done in all directions) and the wrapped upper body, there were different lines and textures created. The body was more precise in the wrapping, resulting in a more polished and sleek look. The eyes will also follow the directional lines on the cling wrap (eye movement).

In addition, Svena and I wrapped the head of Mr McDonalds. We return to using the element of chance (using abit of Dadaist ideas) and wrapped the head in random directions and orientations. A more rough and unfinished look was created with this technique. 

We also observed the material used - cling wrap. The cling wrap was transparent, yet layers and layers of them overlapping on top of each other as we wrapped, subtly concealed the identity of Mr Mconalds. A variety of textures were created; there was a wrinkly effect due to the cling wrap being crumpled up. There was also a smooth effect due to the natural texture of the cling wrap (it is made of plastic).

It is evident that a monochromatic colour scheme is utilised in this work, as only one material of one colour was used. However, there is still a variation of saturation of the colours of the wrappers because, the cling wrap is able to vary the intensity of the white/transparent hue. I find this really remarkable as only materials like cling wrap and cellophane paper can do this.

The finished Mr McDonalds was only wrapped from his head to his hips. In my opinion, I feel that Svena and I were successful in trying to make him fit in to his surroundings as he does look abit like he is playing basketball sitting on the bench, while watching his other “teammates” playing basketball in the court. We sort of did embody the ideas that Christo and Jeanne-Claude had pushed across through their works such as experimenting with textures and lines via the single material used for wrapping.

Anyway, this was a very rewarding and fun project. Svena and I thoroughly enjoyed the wrapping process and were laughing while discussing our next steps throughout the process. Ha, we also took some pictures (seen above). I feel that we were productive and successful.

Once we completed the work, we removed the cling wrap and recycled the platic in a recycling bin (Yay! Save the Earth!). Just as how Christo and Jeanne-Claude did, we conserved the environment by recycling the materials.

I shall not bore you with more talk! Pictures speak a thousand words. Here are some pictures we took while wrapping and also a few pictures of works from Christo and Jeanne-Claude.