Files: abstract, poster, full paper
Fragments from proceedings (‘artefact submission’)’:
Abstract.
A series of plaster casts in the form of small tiles is the starting point for a reflection on a position between drawing and sculpture, between the two dimensional and the three dimensional. But also, a reflection on the imagination of poetic sculptural concepts through a casting method where negative becomes positive and visa versa. The production mode and the necessity of making a series of these plaster casts will be highlighted.
When a photographer shot detailed photos of a large drawing I made for the creation of an edition, I noticed how the medium of photography added a new reading of the depth in the drawing and of the material quality of the lines and cut-outs in that drawing. Without being able to say exactly what it was, I sensed a potential in these observations for the development of new works. In retrospect I can now clearly see how a text by Jean-Marc Besse on cartography, building and inventing that I studied some years ago helped me in setting up a project to give meaning to these observations.
I started making tracing drawings by engraving lines with an electric mill in wooden casting panels. I made small plaster casts of it. The plaster cast came out with a smooth white surface, and the engraved lines created the notion of an embedded relief. A three dimensional and material aspect was introduced. I could make different casts of the same fragment or look for other compositions. I imagine spaces and sculptures made with tabletops, window frames, ground planes of the studio space, badminton nets, billboards, road signs. The flat white surface of the plaster tile inspired as a mental space where the sculptural entities resignate.
I decided to create a method to investigate further the potentials of the observations I made in the photos. I developed a casting technique to allow the production of series of images where I could investigate the position where drawing and sculpture go hand in hand. According to Jean-Marc Besse these images, and the sequence of the different forms of the images, is establishing the path of the object or the project from which we can reconstitute its rationality. These sequences of images and thoughts don’t stop because something is proven, but because the last act was the right one. The logic of the project is about the work that had to be done and not about the rule that had to be used. It is within this dynamic of the research, within this investigation of open horizons based on a “position” (or a hypothesis or an idea of a form) that knowledge objects are being made which shouldn’t be seen as basic facts. Besse, 2001.
Keywords.
mental space; positive negative; poetics; sculpture; position