Sunday, May 25, 2008

In the Habit - at

I kicked off the holiday weekend working in the hab. Doing some more quick brush studies and then tacking some swimming pool fragments to the outside of the structure. I began placing a simple grid 2x2" grid with the intention of using it as a platform for further sculptural additions to the skin.
As with most work I do, plan very little before hand, and try to develop as I go. That's what happened here. As I spend time in the habitat, I find myself concious of what I'm doing in there. Is it different from what I would do elsewhere? No, not really. Should it? Maybe, perhaps not. When I consider the space, I know I want it to be evolving, not static, functional, and hopefully dynamic.
How it's adorned, and how it's used will change. As I was tooling around with my shards of blue plastic, (shards that have been sitting on a shelf for nearly two years, therefore I'm happy to put them to some use, thereby validating my sometimes compulsive aversion to throwing out) creating little dimensional paintings, I was weighing the validity of a decorative vs. functional exterior modification. I had early on figured that I would want to incorporate some retractable work surface on the outside of the structure, and I realize for practical reasons, I could certainly use it. Where would I put it? When a clear componant of this process is that the structure is a sculpture, where should the art end and the design begin. Should every inch of this place be useful - functional? Yes. But would that not simply a be a beautiful shack, and a bit of easthetic exploration for its own sake, is that not valid?
These are internal diatribes that fire back and forth in an instant when I'm working. They are not profound probings, and not worth much of a mention here except that as with the previous post serve to triangulate myself on the path of process. Whether many others read this, I will eventually, and it will add context for me.

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