The small project is a construction/sculptural installation that will evolve and move out of our own studio space and interact with our peers work.
The exercise to make a sculptural piece extending out and interconnecting with other work in a manor similar to a Rhizome. The materials will be of a found nature and hopefully will include use of the craft workshops in one way or another. Once the sculpture had been made and extended and reconnected to others we were to conduct drawings and mark making exercises to explore the feeling of the unified work, not necessarily what it looked like as a whole in a representational form but more of an extension of the specific materials from one part of the whole work or to extend the work in a metaphorical sense, where would it take us if we explored this part further or if it were to continue in different material. Also the drawings and mark making could explore the negative spaces or those left unoccupied.
My starting point was my old discarded 7ft natural Christmas tree which had been in the garden for several weeks. Although it was brown and bare of needles it was still intact as a tree. I first stripped off all the branches and put to one side then cut the trunk in half with a 45 degree angle and attached both pieces either side of a partition wall in my studio space giving the impression the tree and ‘Speared’ or penetrated the wall. This was then screwed securely to the wall, Two lengths of wool were used to help support the wood but also to help it intergrate with the adjacent works which included the same colour wool. On the side of the wall with the bottom part of the tree I attached some of the cut off branches to give the effect of the branches being stripped off as the tree passed through the wall. Adding small pieces of found coloured cloth and rag together with other found materials including glass and metal gave the additional effect of debris and detritus.
This finished work then led to the drawing aspect of the program. On an adjacent wall I stared with making large marks with charcoal and pastels with a variety of lines in all directions but with a general perspective of heading to the top right corner. adding to the line I attached a paper bag, a banana skin various pieces of paper and wood. This then grew with the addition of long thin strips of wood having the effect of elongating the whole drawing.
From here I make a series of small A5 size pastel drawings of my own work but also from various points in the studio making a study of other students work, I found these to be the most successful.
Michael Palmer 