SandraHolleArt

All the experimentation and learning should draw to a close and I should start progressing towards working on expanding my body of work, where hopefully a lot of what I explored and discovered will be cemented in a cohesive series of sculpture. Through my research I am now able to define some criteria for my work which I deem important in order to achieve my aim to produce sculptures that convey complex sensual stimulation and entice the viewer, or, as I'd like to call my potential audiences, explorers, to use them and take something away for themselves. Attributes under the concept of tension and release (both in the formal/aesthetic sense and the emotional sense) that I'd like to reflect in my work could be calming. smooth, balanced, meditative, contrasting in texture, contradictory, surprising or satisfying. 'spinner in the works'

In a previous post I wrote about using fire in order incorporate empty space into my work. The empty space that encourages us to examine and find out what used to be there in the first place. I applied what I learned by using a blow torch on a concrete test piece as the equivalent to firing away combustable material in the ceramics kiln. https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2021/05/exploring-empty-space-using-papermache.html papermache forms in concrete, excess papermache burnt away Now out of the kiln: the "holey" equivalents in clay that served me well before thinking about the concrete approach: Combustable materials (chickpeas, paper, paper mache beads) pushed into the clay to burn away and leave the textured negative spaces After the first firing I accentuated the areas where material had burnt off with oxides such as copper carbonate and manganese which I would try as stains on concrete later examples of texture through burning away and staining with oxides - some of the

There are some more important results for me both visually and contextually coming from the use of copper and steel. This is an example of how I could include the copper and steel wire. It can describe a sense of exposure and vulnerability using empty space. concrete and copper wire, partly natural build up of verdigris Trial: combination of clay and steel wire with added copper carbonate Trial piece after the second firing, showing the emphasised cracks through adding copper carbonate (verdigris) Here the tension shows in a formal way – the clay is forced onto the looped wire bur cracks emerged and some parts broke away. The irregular shapes that emerge as holes are a releasing counterpart. About wire and metal work, please refer also to those previous posts: https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2020/11/ruth-asawa.html https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2021/01/wire-and-myelin.html https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2021/01/metalwork-foldforming-charles-lewton.html and to the work of

There are plenty of things I have been trying out, always keen to add more techniques to my range, to have a good base of knowledge of materials and outcomes. This, I hope will give me some more control over the processes, especially the unpredictable ones. In order to 'take stock', I thought it helpful to gather my work up until now and see them next to each other: It's textured concrete tubes with an inlay technique, it's thin-walled, burned concrete pieces with a papermache core, it's looped wire that appears as a framework for clay or concrete or looped wire as a corrosive and changeable feature. Other attributes than decline, corrosion and inflammation I would like address in my work are the issues of physical balance as well as mental balance or the dealing with sensual overstimulation (modulation) within the haptic realm. I use the concept tension and release in both the design as well as in meaning. I'm planning to implement the results from my experimen

As I started to develop doubts whether I would achieve the effect I'm after with my layering method in concrete, I decided to run those tests in clay as shown in the previous post: https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2021/04/showing-link-between-ceramics-and.html The fired results led me to making some domed pieces that I can see as sitting forms or wall pieces. Here are some documented steps along the way until I had some very rewarding, silky smooth results. For the pattern to be inlayed in a different colour, I used a mould from a previous wax carving for a concrete cast. see post https://sandraholleart.blogspot.com/2021/04/drawing-evolved.html The imprint is filled with layers of different coloured clay and then cut back to level On this piece, I added some woven copper wire which I hoped would burn away and leave black traces from the molten copper. burnishing before firing At a so called leather hard stage (when the clay still hasn't fully dried out but isn't anymore

  The terms sensory integration and haptic has been popping up. I want to clarify some terms here: Haptic: the collective term for several sensation pathways that include the tactile (referring to the sense of pressure on the skin), proprioception (how we recognise our body within our surroundings), kinaesthesia (how we move around) and the cutaneous (skin sensations like pain or temperature) (Bingley, 2012). Touch: necessary to gain a full sensory experience the conditions and processes of sensory development are now believed to be intermodal one sense can’t develop or be in full use without the others (Bingley, 2012; Zuckert, 2009). There is an interdependence between the five senses with an ongoing modulation in order to achieve full awareness. Haptic experience - Sensory integration: a brain area that is important in this context - the homunculus formed by the primary motor cortex and the primary somatosensory cortex these sections of our nervous system are responsible for process

This sample form is coming on nicely now. After layering various mixes on this tube, the concrete develops a surface that I feel resembles what I want to say with my sculptures. The next layer finishes the inlays and reveals what lies underneath. The look that is emerging through this technique reminds me of the patterns of Damaskus steel or Mokume Gane. I will now explore this pattern a bit more and try to achieve it in a more controlled, targeted way. Example of mokume gane layers of different metals After all, with haptics, it's not just the tactile sense that wants to be challenged, it's also how the senses interact and integrate ... Which brings us again round to  Sensory integration! Good old humunculus.

Layering several concrete mixes can lead to a rather thick build up which might look in some cases very chunky and heavy. I want, however push my favourite materials. Hence I've been thinking about ways to give my concrete forms a more delicate flair. After all, I want to show fragility, inflammation, decline and unpredictability in my work. To visualise the vulnerability we can find ourselves in through an invisible illness, I would like to take my inclination to distress (tubular forms) in my work a step further now. I'd like to pierce the concrete or clay and, depending on perspective, take away or create empty space that becomes a form in itself. (Hepworth) This hopefully adds another dimension, creates interest or even tension that wants to be balanced out again. Under the light of the inherent concept of tension and release, balance and vertigo... I use fire in order to distress the surface until holes appear. To give the forms an inner structure and stability when attack

The more I am experimenting, researching and thinking about my subject matter, the more apparent my aim becomes. I want my objects to be tempting to touch. I think, the inclination to take something into our hands and explore its surface depends a lot on how appealing it looks. Vision and touch are senses that are connected, integrated. (see sensory integration) If it's 'umami' for the eyes, then we also want confirmation that it feels just as good as it looks. What happens when our vision is betrayed by an incongruous experience when touching the object. Are we disappointed because our expectations through what we saw aren't met through thouching the object? Are we surprised of what we find out when we touch the object? Are we bored, because the object feels exactly how we thought it would after looking at it? There might be a degree of personal preference involved here, as well.   All in all, the interesting thing is, that there are now data available, which suggest t