I was feeling quite negative about the project and was struggling to come up with anything I felt enthusiastic about. After a talk from one of our tutors about his artists' books I decided to scrap what I had been working on and do a project I'd been thinking about for a while.
Last year I found lots of old wallpaper outside a house which is being renovated on Perth Road. There were several layers of paper which I thought was interesting firstly as whoever lived there hadn't even bothered to strip the paper each time they redecorated... And also it gives an insight into what the interior of the house looked over the years.
I went and did some drawings and took some photos of the house.
The house is directly opposite a church which got my mind running down some odd tangents. I started looking at Christian art and thinking about religious objects generally.
I love the look of religious art and some of the panels I was looking at had interesting angled tops which reminded me of the angles of the house and the church opposite.
I decided that I wanted to create a triptych with the different layers of wallpaper as a sort of sequence. I thought it would be cool to use Orientated Strand Board to make the triptych as it's a material often associated with abandonment and dereliction which obviously ties in with the house. I also like OSB as a material as there's something very textural and almost colourful about it with the different chips of wood all being pressed together. The textures of the wallpaper go nicely with the OSB and both have a nice patination which reminds me of the feel of the old religious artworks I am referencing.
Going into the workshop is always a bit intimidating for me but I think I've conquered my fear with this project! I really enjoyed planning and making the triptych and managed to get a level of finish which really surprised me. Here'e a wee sneak preview:
I'll do a blog post with proper pictures once the project is resolved.
I had been thinking about the triptych as a sort of personal altarpiece or shrine and was thinking about the idea of devotional objects. The triptych folds up to be pretty easily portable but I wanted to make a smaller concertina book as a sort of travel altarpiece which could accompany the triptych.
I monoprinted the textures of the wallpaper and the OSB and combined them with the angular building shapes I'd been looking at in these double-sided screen-printed books. To emphasise the angular feel I went with an unconventional and uneven fold - but I experimented with it to make sure that the book could stand up by itself.
I'm really enjoying this project and feel really enthused about it but I'm aware that my ideas for it might be a bit abstract or incomprehensible to the viewer... So I'm working on resolving it and have a few ideas which I think could be really cool. I'll blog my development and the completed work when it's done!
To round off here is a video of me flicking through my sketchbook by "In the Art School"; some fellow communication-designers who are doing a project "documenting the daily activities of students" in DJCAD. They've been posting lots of videos of me (amongst others) being goofy (mercifully shot in black and white) but this sketchbook one is my fave!
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