Multimedia
Man In Deathbed
Size: 243.84 cm x 121.92 cm x 106.68 cm
Medium: Recycled plastic, paper, metal, wood
Date: January, 2018
Man in Deathbed is an installation and found object sculpture created with recycled and purchased plastic bags and other recycled materials, which is highly inspired by the work of Khalil Chishtee. This piece depicts the harm mankind has inflicted onto the environment due to our waste and pollution. The figure created shows how most of the waste created is not biodegradable which forces mankind to be stuck with this waste, which in return harms our health and environment.
Medium: Recycled plastic, paper, metal, wood
Date: January, 2018
Man in Deathbed is an installation and found object sculpture created with recycled and purchased plastic bags and other recycled materials, which is highly inspired by the work of Khalil Chishtee. This piece depicts the harm mankind has inflicted onto the environment due to our waste and pollution. The figure created shows how most of the waste created is not biodegradable which forces mankind to be stuck with this waste, which in return harms our health and environment.
Critical Investigation
Coreth, Mark. The Copenhagen Ice Bear. 2015, Bronze and Ice, Nytorv Square, Copenhagen, Germany.
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I began by researching multimedia sculptures to inspire an idea for myself, as I have never created a multimedia sculpture before. After doing some research I found many amazing pieces, but I had to keep in mind that my piece needed to have a meaning. I decided that I wanted this piece to follow the theme I have created, and I wanted to depict the deterioration of the environment due to mankind’s impact. This lead me to the idea to create my piece out of garbage such as plastic bags, food wrappers, recycled metal, etc. I went through a couple of ideas before I decided to research art made out of plastic bags, and I came across the artist Khalil Chishtee who has created several intricate life-size pieces made from plastic bags. Chishtee’s used plastic bags as a medium as he found it to be historical to our era, such as how using bronze or marble for sculptures back then was historical. Chishtee stated that “we live in the age of plastic...Anything made out of bronze, wood, stone or painted on a canvas carries the appearance of being worth looking at, because of its history, but if one can change the impact of that history, one is an artist.” After seeing Chishtee amazing work, I decided I wanted to have a similar approach with this piece and construct a life-size human made of plastic bags. I then continued my research and came across The Copenhagen Ice Bear, which is a sculpture of a polar bear made out of ice. When the ice melts, it reveals a disturbing bronze skeleton beneath to show how polar bears are dying from the melting ice due to climate change. This piece was created by Mark Coreth for the The Ice Bear Project in order to raise awareness for polar bears by the use of art. Coreth witnessed the effects of climate change when he travelled to Baffin Island. Because he knew not many people would ever see the Arctic, he decided he would bring the Arctic to everyone by creating the Ice Bear sculptural event. After seeing this piece I decided I wanted to depict a similar horror and evoke similar moods due to the waste and pollution created by mankind in order to move people and depict graphically how waste pollution is harming humans and even the environment. However, I wasn't sure how I'd depict this horror and I originally thought I could do this by having the figure I create hang by it's neck. After the in class critique, it was brought to my attention that this idea communicated lynchings rather. Thus, I decided I should take a different approach upon depicting a horror. I did more research and came across Study of the Head of a Corpse by Charles Emile Champmartin. This painting inspired the idea of having the figure look like a corpse lying on it's deathbed, thus I started collecting materials in order to create a bed out of waste.
Process
1. Research/Planning
I began by researching multimedia sculptures to inspire an idea for myself, and I came across the artist Khalil Chishtee who has created several intricate life-size pieces made from plastic bags. I decided I wanted the piece to be similar in that way, and construct a life-size figure out of trash bags. I then came across The Copenhagen Ice Bear, which inspired me to depict a similar horror and evoke similar moods due to the waste and pollution created by mankind. My idea began with depicting a human that hanged from a trash bag, however, it was brought to my attention that this idea communicated lynchings rather. Thus, I decided I wanted this figure to look like a corpse lying on it's deathbed as seen in Study of the Head of a Corpse by Charles Emile Champmartin. This lead me to the idea of creating an installation, where the figure would lie on a bed mad of garbage.
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To construct this piece, I knew I would need a large supply of trash bags. These trash bags would mostly be found, however, later on I realized I didn't collect enough and ended up buying some more. For the armature, I thought about buying a life-size styrofoam mannequin head and build upon it with the trash bags and using other materials for the body. Similarly, I thought about simply buying a cheap full body mannequin in order to construct my whole piece. However, this wouldn't work as I need the arms to be positioned on the chest. Therefore, I thought about constructing the armature by hand out of newspaper to create a paper mache. This way I can create any shape and pose, and I can use myself or a friend to reference human proportions and shapes. However, this idea seemed complicated to me as I'm not very familiar with paper mache. Which left me stuck with how to construct the armature. This lead me to research specifically how Khalil Chishtee constructed his pieces to help give me ideas. I was able to find a video of Chishtee constructing his pieces, where he suspended the piece on the ceiling while he worked. I saw how he created the armature by tying plastic bags together and slowly building upon the bags, and using hot glue to paste the bags together. Seeing this was extremely helpful, and gave me the idea to construct an armature out of coiled wire that was suspended onto the ceiling while I worked. This way I would bend the wire any way I wanted in order to shape the arms, hands, and fingers the way I wanted. Then I could simple build upon the wire with plastic bags and hot glue. For the head, I planned on putting a styrofoam mannequin head through the wire. This way I could build upon this head with plastic bags to create whatever facial expression I wanted while having accurate proportions and head shape and still being able to bend the neck any way I wanted. I later changed this idea for the armature again, and decided to make a life-size armature from bendable metal rods and wood and wire for the hands and neck. I figured this would be more stable and would make the construction easier as it would use less bags, and this way I wouldn't have to struggle so much with wire. It was also easier because I could obtain all of these materials recycled, as my father works in a factory that throws out materials like these all the time.
2. Collecting Materials
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I began with collecting plastic bags for the life-size figure, however I didn't give myself enough time to collect these bags and thus ended up buying more. In addition, I collected my household's recycling from the past two weeks. I would use this recycling for the installation part. The installation would essentially be a scene of a bed made of trash bags and other lose recycling, which would also resemble a pile of trash that you'd see in a land fill, a dumpster, etc. The trash bags would be filled with this recycling in order to support the life-size figure in a laying down position. Then I would add additional lose recycling in the front to make the scene look more chaotic and messy. I then had to start collecting materials for the armature of the piece. I first went to a nearby art supplies store to get the mannequin head, as I knew I would need this.
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However, during the time I went to shop for the mannequin head I was still unsure of how I was going to construct my armature. The next day or so, I drew a sketch of the armature to determine the materials I would need and what size they would be. I determined that I would need:
- Roll of wire for the hands
- 6 - 12'' pieces of wire for the neck
- 4 - 18" metal pieces for the top of legs
- 2 - 16" metal pieces for the bottom of the legs
- 2 - 12" metal pieces for the top of the arms
- 4 - 10" metal pieces for the forearms and feet
- 2 - 20" metal pieces for the frame of the torso
- 1 - 18" wood piece for the frame of the torso
- 1 - 16" wood piece for the frame of the torso
3. Constructing
This was the most time consuming and difficult step of the process. First, I had to screw together the armature. To do this, I began with drilling holes in the metal and wood pieces. Which was very time consuming and troublesome as I have never drilled through metal before. Once everything was drilled, I pieced the figure together by screwing in the nuts and bolts. I then got the wire and stuck it through the mannequin head and tied it to the frame of the torso. Then I took the roll of wire and twisted together the hands, and tied them through a hole in the forearm.
The next step was to build upon the armature with the plastic bags. I did this by first tying together several bags around the neck, torso, arms, legs, and feet. This was to serve as filler for the body. Then I started gluing additional trash bags onto this. I liked how the hot glue melted the trash bags, I thought this added a texture that looked creepy since it looked melted. |
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Once I finished putting trash bags onto the figure, I began constructing the installation. First, I filled several black trash bags with my household recycling. I had to set aside some of this recycling so I could later lay it down. I ended up running out of recycling to put in the trash bags, so some bags either have old clothes in them or are simply filled with air. I even found some old boxes from other products, I decided to use these in addition to the trash bags. I then took the trash bags and boxes and arranged them into a rectangle, which would serve as the bed. I then laid the figure down onto this. I had to rearrange some bags, because I wanted the figure to sit up on an angle. I then took the recycling I set aside and laid some down in the front to make the scene look messy. I look some newspaper and crumbled up some and threw it down, put down sheets of newspaper, and randomly placed down other wrappers and plastic bottles. Once this was all complete, I decided that I didn't like the bare wall behind the scene as the wall didn't really fit in. To solve this, I taped white trash bags to the wall to make the installation look more complete.
Experimentation
I experimented a lot during this project. For example, I went through and experimented several different ideas before coming up with my final idea. In addition, I experiment with the hot glue as this created many different textures. For instance, you can see this on the face of the figure where the texture is much more rough and melted than the rest of the body. I decided that I wanted this texture for the face, as this helped create a facial expression and made it look more grotesque. I didn't do this throughout the body because it would've taken too much glue and may have taken away the features of the trash bags, since I wanted the figure to look like it was made from trash bags.
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I also experimented with the lighting of the installation. I first positioned it as seen on the first photo in the slideshow to the left. This position created a shadow that exposed a silhouette of the head and trash bags, which I found aesthetic and effective with portraying my theme and mood. However, I thought about it and realized that it was sort of rather distracting to the installation. Therefore, I decided to position the light to light up the entire installation in order to effectively show everything in the installation.
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Reflection
Overall I am pleased with how the final piece turned out, it was pretty much how I expected it to look but even better than I thought. Especially considering this is my first working with trash bags as a medium, and even my first time using tool to constructing something out of wood and metal. I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to communicate very well. I think that the installation resembles a corpse on a bed, which helps with portraying the mood I wanted that evokes a sense of horror. In addition, the medium I used only helps to enforce the theme I wanted to communicate which depicts the harm mankind has inflicted onto the environment and our health due to our waste and pollution. I'm also pleased with how I was able to overcome my struggles, which included constructing the armature.
My final piece has an obvious connection to the work of Khalil Chishtee, as I used the same medium and achieve the same form and texture that Chistee has within his life-size figures. This is done by using trash bags to create a 3-dimensional figure, and by the use of hot glue and ripped trash bags to create a rough and melted texture. In addition, I use a similar mood as seen in the Copenhagen Ice Bear, where there is a similar horror seen as they both portray the decay of health and death due to waste and pollution created by mankind. Lastly, there is a similar emphasis on the subject portrayed in my piece and in the Study of the Head of a Corpse by Charles Emile Champmartin. These similar subjects evoke a similar eerie mood, as they both show a corpse.
My final piece has an obvious connection to the work of Khalil Chishtee, as I used the same medium and achieve the same form and texture that Chistee has within his life-size figures. This is done by using trash bags to create a 3-dimensional figure, and by the use of hot glue and ripped trash bags to create a rough and melted texture. In addition, I use a similar mood as seen in the Copenhagen Ice Bear, where there is a similar horror seen as they both portray the decay of health and death due to waste and pollution created by mankind. Lastly, there is a similar emphasis on the subject portrayed in my piece and in the Study of the Head of a Corpse by Charles Emile Champmartin. These similar subjects evoke a similar eerie mood, as they both show a corpse.
UWM Critique
Having my work critiqued at UWM was a wonderful experience, as it has helped me grow as an artist and even feel proud about my own work. The professors that reviewed my work seemed unsure of what I was exactly trying to communicate until I revealed what my actual intentions were. They both were not able to completely see that the figure within this piece was dead, rather they saw it as asleep. Because of this, this communicated my message incorrectly. They said that my message and theme wasn't that off after I explained it, it was simply hard to understand my message fully because my figure looked asleep. Furthermore, the professors made it clear that every single choice an artist makes is intentional and communicates something about the piece. I never really thought about this, but it made me consider this more so. This is because when making art I'm not always thinking about every little decision I make and how it will impact my piece as a whole, however, I now know to consider this.
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Connecting to the ACT
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
After research Khalil Chishtee's work, this inspired me to create a similar life-size figure out of trash bags to communicate my theme. In addition, The Copenhagen Ice Bear inspired me to depict a similar mood by the use of form in a disturbing way. Lastly, The Study of the Head of a Corpse inspired me to create a similar subject of a corpse laying in its deathbed to communicate my theme more effectively.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Khalil Chishtee was inspired to create his pieces out of plastic bags because he found it to be historical to our era, such as how using bronze or marble for sculptures back then was historical. Chishtee stated that “we live in the age of plastic...Anything made out of bronze, wood, stone or painted on a canvas carries the appearance of being worth looking at, because of its history, but if one can change the impact of that history, one is an artist.” Mark Coreth was inspired to create The Copenhagen Ice Bear to raise awareness for polar bears by the use of art as he witnessed the effects of climate change when he travelled to Baffin Island.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can conclude that artists create art to not just express themselves, but to also advocate for solving issues that concern them. Which can be a very effective method as this can reveal the horror behind certain issues. In addition, I can conclude that there are people out there who want to make a difference in our environment and are trying to get the help from others, however, not many others actually do make an effort to help.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research the harm mankind has inflicted onto the environment due to our waste and pollution. The pieces I researched were created to show how most of the waste created is not biodegradable which forces mankind to be stuck with this waste, which in return harms our health and environment.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Artists create are to advocate for solving issues that concern them. Regarding environmental issues, I can infer that art aimed towards this issue doesn't make a large enough impact on the population as a whole. This is because the majority of the population continues their wasteful habits.
Bibliography
“Khalil Chishtee's Plastic Bag Sculptures.” Beautiful/Decay, 5 Dec. 2013, beautifuldecay.com/2013/11/12/khalil-chishtees-plastic-bag-sculptures/.
“Portfolio.” Khalil chishtee.Com. www.khalilchishtee.com/.
“Study of the Head of a Corpse.” The Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/110776.
“Trash to Treasure (B. Silva) with KHALIL CHISHTEE (PK/USA)-Sculpture Installations-Gallery Berlin-Baku (GBB).” Vimeo, 4 Jan. 2018, vimeo.com/126302099.
“The Ice Bear Project.” WWF, wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/arctic/news/past_events/cop_15/icebearproject/.
“Portfolio.” Khalil chishtee.Com. www.khalilchishtee.com/.
“Study of the Head of a Corpse.” The Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/110776.
“Trash to Treasure (B. Silva) with KHALIL CHISHTEE (PK/USA)-Sculpture Installations-Gallery Berlin-Baku (GBB).” Vimeo, 4 Jan. 2018, vimeo.com/126302099.
“The Ice Bear Project.” WWF, wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/arctic/news/past_events/cop_15/icebearproject/.