Final Idea!

Today I collected my A0 print of page 175 of Alice in Wonderland and I am very happy with the result. I now need to start assembling my final piece, but since receiving the print I have altered my plans slightly.

On the practice examples that I have done, the words I have used have been a lot bigger than the words are now, so now they're far to small to make decent sized objects from. I have therefore decided to enlarge the words that I am cutting out by 175% of the size they are on the A0 sheet to make the objects bigger. This fits in with both my enlarging theme and the 175 brief.

I'm looking forward to getting started!

Rebus Books

The definition of a rebus book is...

A puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters.

I like the way these puzzles become a piece of artwork which you have to think about as well as read, and I would like this to come across in my work. This has inspired me to take my work in a slightly different direction. 

Rebus Puzzle/book

"A bee came and stung his foot"

The work that I am doing at the moment involves cutouts of patterns on different shapes. As the cutouts I have chosen reflect the themes and imagery in Alice in Wonderland,  I now feel like I needed a reason to be choosing the 3D shape as well.

Final Piece Idea.

I now have a final idea which involves an A0 sized scan of page 175 of Alice in Wonderland. I will then chose certain words from the page and cut them out (in a rectangular shape) and will make a 3D shape from whatever sized word I end up with. I will then cut into this with a pattern or image based on what that word says. This way I will be creating my own kind of Rebus puzzle.

So far I have experimented with a few different ways that I could do this. I have found that cubes are a good shape to create because of the shape of the cutout word. I have therefore tried having the text on the inside and the outside.

The word for this cutout was 'Petals" but having the word on the inside made it very hard to read.

This cutout was inspired by the word "Rose" and as you can see, having the word on the outside has meant that it is a lot easier to see.

I have also experimented by not making a shape at all, and just cutting into the word.

This cutout was inspired by the word "questions" and I also decided to hang the question marks which I cutout from the piece too.

After experimenting with these ideas, I think the cubes with the text on the outside work best but I might combine the idea of hanging the cutouts from the cube if it applies. I still need to decide whether to do one shape and keep it constant, or whether to do lots of different shapes and ideas (as I need to ensure that it isn't too confusing).

The idea is therefore that you read the page as a form of rebus puzzle: as you go along the text you will see boxes which represent the word thats missing. The pattern and the faint text should help reveal to the reader what that word is.

Lumen Lamps.

Lumen lamps are designed by Adam Frank and are stainless steel oil lamps which, when lit, project a soft shadow on the wall. The further the Lumen is from the wall, the larger the shadow is cast. What I like about these lamps is that as the flame flickers, the shadow moves about organically. So I can consider what effect different light sources have on my shadows.

Development of cutout shapes!

This week I have been experimenting with shapes and patterns for some of my 3D paper shapes. I have experimented with themes, imagery and text from page 175 of Alice in Wonderland to give me some inspiration for my final exhibition. The shapes below represent the text '"I don't care about the colour" the Tiger-Lily remarked. "If only her petals curled up"', as well as trees and Tiger-Lily's.

I think the shape above is effective because its interesting and elegant, but the cube is also a simple and sophisticated shape which might compliment a complicated pattern better.

A Maze of Patterns!

When I sat down to do work this week, I definitely found myself being stuck for inspiration. I find it hard to work when I feel like this, and I kept trying to do things which didn't work! After pondering over the idea of shadows and light, I eventually thought about the idea of a 3D cutout shape which, when light was projected on it, would look like an illusion, or maze of patterns (linking to the theme of illusion as mentioned in my previous post).

This was the result, and I am happy with the outcome. Although it was hard to make, I can see myself doing multiples of these for my final exhibition, hanging them from the ceiling and allowing them to spin naturally due to drafts, casting a lovely spinning shadow on the wall behind.

I could also create a video to go along side my pieces (a bit like the one above) to show them shrinking and enlarging as the object got closer to the light source When the shadow is spinning this definitely creates the appearance of an illusion too.