Evaluation
My intention for my exam piece was to continue my work on the human form that I had explored within my personal investigation but apply it to the Mythology question within my exam. Because I wanted to retain my focus on the human figure I focused my work on exploring elements and creatures within mythology that carried similar characteristics and features, e.g. mermaids, sirens, gods and others which also carry animalistic elements such as the Minotaur and Faun. However unlike my personal investigation I was unsure in the beginning as to whether I wanted to continue my focus just on the female form or develop my work further into male representations.
Previously within my AS exam work I had kept to a relatively small scale, but during the development to A2 I found I was able to produce larger pieces that contained a greater level of detail and took longer to construct. As the exam was to fulfil 15 hours I decided that I would produce one or two large pieces as part of my final piece, I knew that this would be possible has I had been able to produce a life size figure of a woman and infant within the final 10 hours of my personal investigation. Although I was aware that I wanted to create a large mythological human figure I was unsure as to the exact area that I would limit the subject of my work to, in the beginning I contemplated with the idea of creating a large (but not life size) figure of one creature from within mythology however I had already created something much like that during my coursework. Therefore I decided a greater challenge would be to focus in on an area that I hadn’t paid a great deal of attention to previously, the face. Due to the large scale of the piece I wished to create I knew that I would need strong clay however, I wanted to maintain the smooth texture that is hard to achieve using clays such as Raku. In the end I settled for School Buff as this would supply both strength within the piece and can be smoothed using slip to create a satin finish. During my initial ideas for my piece I was still unsure of what colours I was going to use as I had not done enough development yet into what element of mythology I wished to explore.
I began my exam unit by exploring the human form a little further, retouching on previous work on the female form and a brief but in depth look into the male body structure and face. It was important to look at the face as it is always featured within presentations of Greek/Roman/Pagan mythology. The first example that I looked at that included the male form was that of the Green Man which took the male face and incorporated leaves and other elemental factors into the design. Tawny Gray’s piece ‘Green Man’ 2010 was highly inspiring for this as the sculpture itself had not only taken element from nature but has leaves and branches incorporated into the design. By creating a miniature of the Green Man face I became aware of the level of detail that was needed to create the face and it presented a challenge to me in the beginning. Other artists such as Barbara Foster’s “The Great God Pan” and Sophie Ryder’s “The Minotaur” also inspired me to take element from within the element that the creature belonged to. Because of the inspiration from the green man I attempted to slip cast leaves as a means of developing a way of incorporating the natural surroundings. Although the leaves were very fragile once fired the delicate beauty of them and level of detail the clay had captured concreted my idea to include some kind of mould or print of the natural world within my final piece.
By now I was aware that I wanted to maintain the focus of my final piece within classic Greek/Roman mythology as it is a period of history that has always fascinated me not only through the fine detail of the marble sculptures but also the strength of spiritual belief in gods and the legends that surround them. I began by looking at artistic representation of my favourite Greek/Roman god Poseidon/Neptune. I have always had an interest with this god from stories such as the Little Mermaid and a fascination with the sea. By starting here it gave my investigation a little more of a personal link. Despite looking at the work of Manuel Garcia Calderon and Edvard Enksen’s ‘Copenhagen Mermaid’ I was incredible inspired by the presentation of the god within the classic marble sculptures. The level of detail and emotion captured within the face of the piece was so detailed that the piece almost looked alive, this was something that I wanted to do within my own work as I personally enjoy sculptures that capture the realism of the subject rather than an abstract perception, such as Calderon’s work.
Because of wanted to maintain the realism of the piece I decided that I would include (much like the Green Man) elements from the natural surrounding that this god belonged to. I took plaster casts of shells from clams, oysters and hermit crabs and used the mould to create numerous identical clay shells. These would then be incorporated into my final piece. The idea for my final piece was heavily inspired by traditional Pagan representations of the Green Man however in this instance I had taken the Greek God Poseidon and used his elements to create the same effect.
Overall I am really impressed with my final piece and think it is sufficiently the best work that I have produced throughout my whole 3D unit. I believe that it supplies an example to me of how my skills and interests have developed throughout the subject as well as my confidence in producing large detailed pieces. My choice of clay, subject and methods that I had developed throughout the unit were continued into this piece to demonstrate my strengths and enable me to produce a piece that is a collection of everything I have produced throughout my A level. In my personal opinion the piece exceeded my expectations as I didn’t think I would be able to produce both my ideas however, the fact that I was able to in a sufficient amount of time and to an equal level of detail demonstrated to me just how far my skills had developed.
I think if I were to do this again I would be tempted to push myself even further and create a full sized piece. However I think that this would take a lot more clay and time and may be too big a challenge but I would like to aim for something of this level if I were to recreate my piece.