adele morse

http://adelemorse.blogspot.com/

This makes me want to pursue a more surreal approach to my work and push the animal/human creatures further!

Her body...

the basic structure of the body...

the head...

Half way through the sculpting of the head, needs fattening out little but she's coming along well...

Armature head...

So i don't use tons of clay in sculpting my head i have produced an armature structure to build onto...

Little model...

Made from Fimo my first maquette of the lamb girl i will produce...

Ron mueck, casting...

very interestng 3 part film of how he does it!

Beth Cavener Stichter

amazing animal sculpture

http://www.followtheblackrabbit.com/

Matthew Barney...

It was suggested to me to look at Matthew Barney... so i did.
His Films The Cremaster Cycle have to be one of the most epic and experimental pieces i've ever come across. "a self-enclosed aesthetic system consisting of five films that explore processes of creation" the cremaster muscle is the muscle that regulates the temperature of the scrotum by raising and lowering the testies. The films explore the ascended state in cremaster 1 through to the decended state in cremaster 5. Not only is his approach, the mixing of performance, costume, photography and film relevent to my work but his theme as the first films refer to early sexual development.

http://www.cremaster.net/

Scott Radke

C r e a t u r e s ...
I want to show the transformtion through forms becoming mutated and mixed up, now i'm considering creating my own new creatures to illustrate this with. Radke has his own original creatures in his work ...

http://www.scottradke.com/marionettes.htm

Royal De Luxe perform...

Royal De Luxe performed in berlin on the 3rd of this month, oh how i'd have given my left arm to have seen it!!






check out more videos of the event on you tube, the two characters end up on a boat together!

Mark Ryden

I particallary love his use of style and symbolism in his work. His paintings look sweet and innoent at first glance but under closer inspection it appears there's more than meets the eye...

http://www.markryden.com/

Royal De Luxe... my favourite

My favourite spark of inspiration came from a French street-theatre company called Royal De Luxe; their work consists of very large scale street performances often using giant mechanical puppets. They perform on the streets of major cities around the world. In my own work I have always had a keen interest in using sculpture and puppets/dolls; their use of these really motivates me to push this way of working more. Sometimes they relate to fairytales and existing stories. the inspire me so much!


Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company. They were founded in 1979 by Jean Luc Courcoult. Based in nates, the company has performed in frnace, belgium, England, germany, iceland , chile and australia.



http://www.thesultanselephant.com/about/royaldeluxe.php
http://www.flickr.com/groups/royaldeluxecentral/

Snuff Puppets!

The reason i like this company is due to it's use of puppets and performance in different ways. Their work ranges from performances in cubs including cabaret shows, to activism and political work through to "roaming" my prefered of the three. Roaming refers to the idea of a performance in an unconventional aproach, it merely happening on the street with now present narrative or reason. This apprach lends it's self to my work wel as i intend to produce a street erformance that may not contain a start middle or end?

Performance...

Now to look at some performance pieces as inspiration... here's an example of the extremes within performance...



"Drew Ziegler is a local Chicago weirdo who has been staging absurdist puppet shows and performances in basements and underground galleries for years."
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/10/complicated-hor.html

Old Trout Puppet... not so sure

I've come to realise in my research that puppets can seem silly... in fact I’ve found it's hard to take it seriously at all sometimes. Maybe children have the imagination to forget there are people puling strings and us grownups only see the people behind the show... old trout puppets have really highlighted this to me and so I’m now leaning much more to a performance/puppet based piece. I think work like this is more convincing and enjoyable for older generations.

Exhibition for puppets...

I found it really interesting to find exhibitions put together based on puppets. I think this shows how this form of art is taken seriously and isn't so simple and unappreciated.

"The works range from a 1974 sculpture installation by American artist Dennis Oppenheim to a new animation by the Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg. Some of the works involve actual puppets (marionettes, shadow puppets, hand puppets) and artists performing as puppeteers. Other images evoke topics associated with puppetry (manipulation, miniaturization, agency, control). Collectively these works show puppets to be a provocative and relevant imagery—one that moves deep into social, political and psychological terrains."
-http://www.tcmhi.org/ex_mhPuppetShow.htm

Nathalie Djurberg

Originally i thought nathalie's work was mainly themed upon fairytales etc, and while her work refeclts them this is not entiery true...

Under closer examination ...
"The Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg works with animation films which are inhabited by clay figures in a strange universe. The short films are often no longer than five minutes but they manage however to tell stories about the human condition mixed both with black humour and seriousness. The stories deal with topics such as war, violence, sexuality, sadism and assault ­ in an investigation of the darker side of the human soul."- http://artnews.org/artist.php?i=1211

I do like her work and find it very interesting, but i don't want to pursue this kind of violent and dark content. But I thought I’d include her as she uses folklore to inspire her themes as I may in mine...

for more work...
http://www.zachfeuer.com/nathaliedjurberg_2005.html

Werewolf?! Transformation...

Werewolf, a symbol of tansfrmation...

Image taken from American werewolf in London

It struck me that a werewolf inspired creature could prove a useful tool in symbolising the transformation between child and adult, the opposite ed of the scale to a wolf would be a lamb?
I'm really considering using this concept within my piece... just need to think how...

Actual "stories of Lycanthropy can be found via this link...
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/l/lycanthropy.htm

Ron Meuck...SCALE !!

I've always been a fan of Ron Mueck's work, although ultimately he merely repeats the same thing over again in his work, the play with scale and its significance in making a certain statement, I do love the amazing realistic qualities of the finish. Ghost is a perfect example of scale emphasising and communicating a specific feel...





"The distorted size and awkward posture often indicate the subject's emotional state. Ghost 1998, represents a seven-foot girl. Her enlarged scale and uneasy demeanour emphasise a sense of adolescent anxiety."

Alice Opera???!!!

very bad reinterpretation of Alice in Wonderand in Opera!

Alice syndrome...

One of the reasons i find alice in wonderland relevent to my work is the use and play with scale, i never knew that there as an actual syndrome named after this!



"...I began experiencing the symptoms described here in 1997 and at the time could find no information on the subject. This page exists to help those in similar circumstances. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS or AWS) describes a set of symptoms, the most famous of which are: * Alteration of body image: the sizes of parts of the body are perceived incorrectly. * Alteration of visual perception: the sizes of external objects are perceived incorrectly. Most reports are about children experiencing AIWS symptoms, though many people experience it in later life. Many people say they had AIWS symptoms as a child, but 'grew out' of them around their teens. The most common time to experience AIWS symptoms is at night." -Rik Hemsley

Rossina Bossio

A fine artist I have recently come across is Rossina Bossio, born in Columbia and studying in France. The reason I’m so attracted to her work is her use of theme, she often uses pubescent children in her work to create uncomfortable awkward images, this is risky and not really want I aim to do but I really like the execution of the paintings. She also uses references to fairy tales in her images; this does relate to my work and may be something I consider to use...

Oedipus...

One of Freud’s most controversial theory was the Oedipus one.
In the Oedipus complex, a boy is fixated on his mother and competes with his father for maternal attention. The opposite, the attraction of a girl to her father and rivalry with her mother, is sometimes called the Electra complex.

I’m not particularly interested in this specific theory, only that the “complex” was mainly aimed at boys and rarely associated with girls?...

psychosexual development...

The theme I have chosen to use in my work is the transformation from child to adult in girls. I've been gathering information on the subject ranging from simple pieces of information on puberty to more in depth psychology based information. This includes psychosexual development in children. I felt it would be a sin not to mention Freud and his concepts on this matter,



but I’m not being naive, I know his theories are very outdated and criticised and so I am only treating this as research and not fact that I will base my work on!
It's interesting as he breaks the development of a child down into 5 stages focussing on specific areas of the body which could prove to be useful "areas" to focus on in my work?...