Exhibition:
This piece was created to describe an environmental issue in today's society such as degradation, deforestation, water pollution etc. by creating a bonsai tree out of copper wire I was able to present a Industrial vs Organic piece. The work is suppose to send a message to viewers that behind this beautiful piece there were consequences. Inspired by Alexander Calder’s The Golden Fish Bowl, I emulated his idea on creating not only a wire piece, but to show awareness to animals and the environment.
This piece was created to describe an environmental issue in today's society such as degradation, deforestation, water pollution etc. by creating a bonsai tree out of copper wire I was able to present a Industrial vs Organic piece. The work is suppose to send a message to viewers that behind this beautiful piece there were consequences. Inspired by Alexander Calder’s The Golden Fish Bowl, I emulated his idea on creating not only a wire piece, but to show awareness to animals and the environment.
Process/Idea
Ideas:
Environment: Trees, leaves, branches (Organic)
Metal: Copper Wire (Industrial)
Meaning: Culture, Technology, The Environment
Pot
Fake Grass
Process:
2-3 trees
60 cm of copper wire (single) up 6 wires
twist the 6 wires into one single wire
Then cut in half to make two 30 cm
then combine the the two to make single.
Repeat until there is no more copper left.
Environment: Trees, leaves, branches (Organic)
Metal: Copper Wire (Industrial)
Meaning: Culture, Technology, The Environment
Pot
Fake Grass
Process:
2-3 trees
60 cm of copper wire (single) up 6 wires
twist the 6 wires into one single wire
Then cut in half to make two 30 cm
then combine the the two to make single.
Repeat until there is no more copper left.
Sketches:
Research:Alex Calder
-http://www.theartstory.org/artist-calder-alexander.htm Alex Calders history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Calder Photographs -http://www.calder.org/life/photobiography Endangerment: http://www.bagheera.com/inthewild/van_anim_elephant.htm http://www.utne.com/environment/copper-mining-effects-ze0z1409zhur http://www.greenspec.co.uk/building-design/copper-production-environmental-impact/ |
Meaning:Copper is a metal that occurs naturally in the environment, and also in plants and animals. Low levels of copper are essential for maintaining good health.
High levels of copper can be harmful. Breathing high levels of copper can cause irritation of the nose and throat. Ingesting high levels of copper can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Very-high doses of copper can cause damage to the liver and kidneys, and can even cause death. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004 The smelting process can also create pollution. Smelting often produces large volumes of low concentration sulfur dioxide that is not worth further processing to remove the sulfur. Acid rain resulting from the combination of rain and SO2 can cause damage to crops, trees and buildings for many miles down-wind. Three major issues that are caused with copper mining: 1) Land degradation 2) Deforestation 3) Surface water pollution |
Experimental and Development:I decided to make even a smaller bonsai tree, and used a single rolled copper and just in in half and repeated my previous process. At first i didn't think it would work like the previous two trees, but apparently it did. In order to make the twisting easier I used a napkin allowing my fingers to get a brake, then after that the napkin was ripping apart, because it would get twist up with the wires. So I went with construction gloves and things were smoother and I was able to twist with no problems, except i would need to take the gloves off in order to create little circles with pliers.
I also decided to not make the trees separated, because one tree kept tipping over and causing the rest to tip along with it, so I had a plan to just twist all four trees together. |
Artistic Inspiration:
Reflection:
Overall i enjoyed creating this piece, there were issues at first of what i was going to create, but then I soon later found out what I was going do and use for the project. Copper wire was my first idea and I needed to figure out what kind of tree i needed to create. The tree i decided to use was a bonsai tree, because i liked the way it looked when it was made out of copper wire. If i were to do this type of project, i would rather create one tree instead of four different ones, because I didn't like the size of the bonsai tree. I really wanted to emulate the movement of the tree and the detailed aspects of the tree. The struggles that I faced in the beginning process of creating this was cutting the wire into 60 cm, because i didn't have a cutting tool, twisting the strands of copper to make little circles and twisting the wire to create the trunk of the tree. To solve these issues, i had a cutting tool that allowed me to cut the right sizes and to twist the little strands to make circles. For creating the trunk of the tree i used gloves to have a easier grip. But overall I like the way the piece came out and how the four trees were able to work nicely with each other.
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Act Questions:1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your work.
- My inspiration allowed me to understand an important issue and by using a material that is causing the destruction and causing the issue to happen. But unlike my inspiration it presents what is getting affected, instead of my work it focuses on the material aspect and what is being affected. 2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration? - The research allowed me to understand more on environmental issues and the destruction that is caused when materials such as copper is needed constantly from society. 3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspirations? - Overall conclusion I discovered is that more and more plant and animal life is getting destroyed by the constant destruction of humans. Due to the fact of high demands for supplies, the expansion of human life and careless people. 4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? - The central idea was environmental issues that in today's society and the destruction we're causing. 5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research? - The inference i made about my research is why can't the destruction on the environment be stopped or even reduced to a certain amount to where animals, water and plants aren't badly affected. |