My usual modus operandi for constructing a sculpture is quite simple - I have an idea (or ideas) for a sculpture, mull it over until I have a rough image in my mind's eye of how it might look, thrash out a few sketches to work out the logistics of construction, make a final sketch, then go about making the sculpture. But for my current work in progress (working title, Component Tower) I'm adopting a different approach; one that's a bit more playful and experimental, but which I'm finding a little slow going as it pretty much goes against everything that I'm used to when it comes to making art.
For this piece I'm not thinking about the end result, and how it will
look, but am just concerning myself with constructing a series of individual
'components' from various found materials, and then finding a way of merging
together these elements to create a unified whole - and seeing what form that
whole eventually takes. For me it is very counter intuitive, and I'm constantly
having to force myself to just go with it, and not try to pre-empt the end
result, but it's not easy, which explains the slow going.
The upside of this way of working is that it generates chance connections
and new pathways of thought. The process of trying out different configurations
for these seemingly disparate elements (when trying to work out the best way to
piece them together) is that it throws up interesting new forms and associations;
associations that I might not have arrived at had I been working in my usual
manner - to the sets of rules that my practice had begun to lay down for me.
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