Designs

In my illustrations I focused more about how I could show off my drawings in an unusual way and still be able to see what the objects/patterns were. The idea of increasing and decreasing shapes then manipulating them in different ways fascinates me. Each illustration gave me another idea for another idea then another one so I just kept on developing these ideas to make more unique and unusual designs. The artists I researched were a great inspiration to me because I like the unusual, obscure designs.  The simple techniques gave a completely misshapen finished product.

Development

When I was developing my ideas I took all my drawings and highlighted the bits I found the most interesting and started to manipulate them. The elements I found the most intriguing were the sleeves and cuffs of the jacket. There were many various ways to which I could experiment with these drawings. So I started simply, just by increasing and decreasing the scale of them. Then I kept repeating the shapes of the sleeves and cuffs, then inserting them in different unusual ways. I found this method of development different because I had fun manipulating the objects in any shape or form. The more obscure the better. I have benefited from this experience of manipulation because I learnt many more techniques. It’s also taught me new strategies within photoshop that I didn’t know were available. So I can further my development using these in any of my future art work. Photography is something that I enjoy especially the editing part. 

Installations and Sculptures

I took another look at this idea of distortion, and then looked at how artists used various techniques to bend, twist these materials to construct their finished sculpture and the place or setting to which it could be viewed. Artists that did this were more installation and sculpture based. I was aware that there would be many of these artists because I looked at some installation art in my past work and found it very helpful and fascinating. These artworks were amazing to look at, as they transform the whole space they are set in. I find it very intriguing how various simple shapes can be manipulated into such distorted shapes in a variety of different spaces and environments. An artist that uses this idea in their artwork is Petros Chrisostomou a photographer. He takes some basic shapes and objects from everyday life then creates these sculptures and installations, which are small; however they are altered and edited to look massive in the photographs. I was very surprised by the many forms these sculptures had taken as if they had a life of their own. It put a completely different prospectus on the objects chosen from their starting point to the completed work. However these diverse artists have taught me other techniques, thus giving me my own numerous ideas. I would like to explore other ways of distortion by using the photographic and silicone processes I found.

Wrapping of the body

My own distored images

Artists

How I started my artist’s research was by looking at how other artists distort the human body in many different ways other then what I was trying to create. I came across a lot of artists that link to the distorted theme. My favourite artist that I found, that answers my questions of distortion is Julien Palast and his shrink-wrapped bodies. Julien is a photographer and the way in which he snapped each one of these images is very unique. The bodies seem much deformed as well as oddly shaped. However with the material they have used you can still highlight and see what the actual shape is. These images are very fascinating with the selection of materials used. How Julien has captured the out of kilter look of the human body.

Another artist that makes the human body out of line is Anders Krisar. Where he has taken a form of human skin as a material then used it in a textile process to create a misshaped sculpture of the human male torso. This also very disturbing to look at as the skin looks very realistic however it’s made from a type of silicone. Anders Krisar gave me the idea of manipulating fabrics and materials themselves to look obscured.   

With artists using distortions I have found that they use many different techniques and processes, taking everyday objects and materials then changing them. So that the audiences and the viewers can question their ideas as well as the techniques used.

The simplest process of changing a shape is by increasing or decreasing the size which makes the shape more twisted. An artist who uses this idea is Jeff Koons with his massive sculptures. One sculpture that stood out for me was the woman he made out of pink aluminium. The woman was misshaped as some of her body parts had been deformed and increased.    

Piece by piece

With the unpicking of the jacket pieces, I started to place them in various ways to create different shapes on the manikin. I wanted to produce my own version of dissimilar shapes. I enjoyed manipulating these in many different ways. I used the sleeves and the sleeve linings, then the shoulder pads to assemble all types of diverse shapes. I found using this process fascinating because I got to design my own distorted shapes out of jacket pieces. This turned out to be a piece of sculpture taken from an item that we wear and that we use every day. What’s more with this process we don’t even think about how these shapes could craft other unusual shapes. The dissimilar shapes are out of the ordinary because they get the audience to question what they are as well as how they are put together, especially from that particular item of clothing. This is what I would like to investigate further.