Elements of Design II: PROJECT 1: METAMORPHASIS

PROBLEM:

Use a single, complete sheet of 16" x 20" bristol paper to create a free-standing abstract sculpture with up to 4 cuts. Mount on a 9" x 9" gray foam core 1/2" thick.

INITIAL RESEARCH INSPIRATIONS:

1. Richard Sweeney
When I started researching the designers for this project, I was immediately drawn to Richard Sweeney's work. Richard Sweeney is a sculpture designer from England. What caught my eye and curiosity the most was how he incorporated such a great amount of motion in his paper sculptures. Despite the stiffness and solidity of the paper, there is a sense of softness through the curvilinear gesture. Two of Sweeney's sculptures shown below both incorporate folds that I believe add an interesting texture to a curve. When I think of curves I, for some reason, think of smoother surfaces because they are more malleable. After researching Sweeney's body of work, I was inspired to add some folds and curves into my own project. This feat, however, turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. After researching his work some more and watching a short tutorial video I found online, I realized that making curves and folds as seamless and textured as Sweeney required more than just 4 cuts.

2. Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid is an award-winning British-Iraqi architect. Upon researching her body of work, I found that almost all of her designs beautifully incorporated a unique shape that had been deformed in one way or another. Hadid's designs are definitely contemporary in that they break away from traditional ways of looking at a building. When you look at one of Hadid's designs, your eyes easily move across the whole structure without jumping around. There is a sense of balance through all her designs despite the various elongated structures. From the examples below, it becomes evident that every element, from the curves to the lines, is connected in the smoothest way possible and this was something I wanted to attempt add to my project. The first image below also reminded me of the melting clocks in "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali.

PROCESS:

When the project was first assigned, I was actually very excited to get started. Several design ideas were floating around in my head and I thought this would be an fun project to tackle. However it was not until I physically started working on the project that I realized some, if not most of my design ideas would not have come to fruition due to the lightness of the paper.

My initial design included an emphasis on negative spaces that resembled a rib cage or series of vertebrae. This design (pictured below) proved to be an inadequate one because it was too top heavy. In my second design, I chose to incorporate elements from both Richard Sweeney and Zaha Hadid. Through adding folds to create a texture and curves to accentuate the soft nature of the paper. First I made three cuts to divide the top of my sheet of bristol board into three sections. Then I started rolling the paper to get a better idea of how this structure would stand. I concluded that a cone-ish shape would be my best bet and proceeded to cement it into shape. After letting it dry, I started to curl the outer petals I had previously cut to create a curvilinear appeal. I decided to add just a few folds to the three lower petals to add some texture and create shadows. The remaining petal in the center appeared a little too boring and solid so I decided to cut a portion in the middle to make another flap. I curled the new flap as well in order to add more motion to the sculpture. As far as mounting, since my base was rather thin, I decided to create an incision to stick my base in. With some precision rubber cement, I was able to mount my paper sculpture onto a gray foam core.

SKETCHES/TRIALS: