Research - objects used in art - 2 artists

​What do you call art with objects?

Assemblage is an artistic form or medium usually created on a defined substrate that consists of three-dimensional elements projecting out of or from the substrate.

It is art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially for the purpose. Work produced by the incorporation of everyday objects into the composition. Although each non-art object, such as a piece of rope or newspaper, acquires aesthetic or symbolic meanings within the context of the whole work, it may retain something of its original identity.

An artist of this example is Joseph Cornell (1903 – 1972), an American visual artist and filmmaker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker. He was largely self-taught in his artistic efforts and improvised his own original style incorporating cast-off and discarded artifacts.

Cornell's most characteristic art works were boxed assemblages created from found objects. These are simple shadow boxes, usually fronted with a glass pane, in which he arranged eclectic fragments of photographs or Victorian bric-a-brac, in a way that combines the formal austerity of Constructivism with the lively fantasy of Surrealism.

Joseph Cornell Untitled (Dieppe) c. 1958, Museum of Modern Art, (New York City).

A Parrot for Juan Gris (1953-53/57), Joseph Cornell.

Each of Cornell’s works have a unique story and representation for the objects that create a scene. For example, the work ‘A Parrot for Juan Gris’ can represent a story from around the world, this idea is given using an image of a parrot and use of foreign texts, maps and floral imagery in the background to help portray the bigger scene.

A Found Object

“A found object is a natural or man-made object, or fragment of an object, that is found (or sometimes bought) by an artist and kept because of some intrinsic interest the artist sees in it.”

Sometimes referred to by the French term for found object ‘objet trouvé’, Found Objects may be put on a shelf and treated as works of art in themselves, as well as providing inspiration for the artist. For example, sculptor Henry Moore collected flints and bones which he seems to have treated these as natural sculptures as well as sources and inspiration for his own works.

This image is of the sculpted work by Moore called ‘Animal Head,’ created in 1951.

‘Moore tended to find inspiration for his work in natural forms. Although cast in plaster, this sculpture has the appearance of a pebble or piece of worn bone, an indefinable organic form that takes on the identity of some hybrid animal. The ghostly, grotesque quality of Animal Head, like other works by Moore, carries connotations of decay and mortality.’

- Gallery label, September 2016

Moore also created a piece called ‘Head of Serpant,’ created in 1927. It ‘is a small, wall-mounted stone sculpture of a snake-like head thrusting forward from a circular base. Sharply incised narrow ovals on either side of the smoothly rounded head indicate the serpent’s eyes. Its jaws are improbably thick and seen from the side the snake seems to smile. Inside its mouth are two triangular notches and, mysteriously, two neatly drilled holes.’

Created in 1927, when Moore was working as a tutor at the Royal College of Art in London, he had taken up a teaching post in the sculpture department in 1924 after gaining his diploma from the college and continued working there until 1931. Although nothing is known about the precise circumstances in which ‘Head of Serpent’ was made, it was probably carved at Moore’s studio, 3 Grove Studio, Adie Road, Hammersmith, where Moore lived and worked between 1926 and 1929.

The sculpture is numbered 45 in the artist’s catalogue raisonné of 1957, which notes that it was made in the autumn of 1927.

In my opinion, all of these works have inspired me to work with different materials in ways that they could be developed in second or third dimensions. Just like the Parrot piece as been made with different types of media’s, like third dimensional objects and newspaper clippings from the area that it was inspired from, and Moore’s work are more third dimensional with it being sculpted by hand, like all angles and edges.

Module pieces - lace

During this term, while following up with the Lace Project at Newstead Abbey, we began to create our own works with inspiration from lace and its different types.

I wanted to have the topic of lace fresh inside my mind so I searched up different types of lace that I could use, or, get inspiration to base it from, and upon searching around this topic, I came across a bobbin lace artist from China, JiaYue. Since that I am very interested in the different cultures of Asia, such as art, architecture and lifestyle, I decided to go with this theme.

JiaYue, who lives in China, could not learn about bobbin lace, only a part from the internet. But soon she went to Shandong, 2000km away from Chengdu, and found a teacher, Wang Jiaqing, who had been making lace for the past 57 years (as of 2021), that was wiling to teach her. Thus soon developed JiaYue's skills with the materials, so she went on to create really intricate works.

Pieces of JiaYun’s works and collaborations, along with my inspirations can be found here.

In October of 2019, the 7th International Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival was held in Chengdu, where JiaYue lived. She met Ms. Ewa Szpila, a Polish Bobbin Lacemaker, whose daughter was creating smaller and intricate lace pieces before posting them online.

"I haven't designed any patterns all by myself, but I want to make Bobbin Lace with different materials in the future. I want to combine lace with a variety of interesting things. The theme will be about light & shadow, ballet, jellyfish, leaves, flowers, and Chinese pane."

JiaYue's desires to use different types of materials in the future has inspired me to create my works with different types of materials too, from papers to fabrics.

Looking at historic Chinese art, I feel that my works have also been inspired by a hanging scroll Chinese ink wash painting by Ma Ling in the 13th century. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as 'guó huà,' meaning "national painting" or "native painting," as opposed to Western styles of art which became popular in China in the 20th century. The finished work can be mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or handscrolls. Traditional painting can also be done on album sheets, walls, lacquerware, folding screens, and other media.

Our work at Newstead Abbey can inspired this as we had experimented with some cyanotypes, I utilised some lace as well as some foliage that I had found on our tour, I had layered them to the point that only a certain part of foliage was clearly visible, but the lace too, so that made in look like a laced leaf, thus inspiring my final works.

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(start of version 1)

I first experimented with an A3 piece of paper to start with, where I would soon start to make similar pieces, just bigger sizes.

At the start of this piece, I drew out the outline of the butterfly first before painting part of the page red so that it would be easier for me to outline the lines without having to paint the white spaces, thus making it harder for myself. Before using black paint to outline the shapes, I drew in some shapes and some lace patterns with some inspiration from Chinese lace. On some areas, I used small white details so that the patterns would stand out.

(finished version 1)

After the completion of the first image, I wanted to take it further by changing some things and adding some layering of prints from actual pieces of lace. I inverted the colours so that the background would be black instead of red, and vice versa. The lace prints I added were also in red, but if I was to do this piece again, I would practice printing the lace on first so that I can get more of a bold shape from them, as well as having the white patterns a darker shade so that it doesn't stand out as much as it does and not seem so bright, as well as try it on another material, such as wood or a metallic surface.

(version 2)

By this time, I knew that I has to work on an even bigger scale, to capture more detail into it, as working on a smaller surface, you won't be able to capture such detail. But just like the first piece, I drew on some patterns first before painting the outlines. I also avoided using the colour white as I thought that it would be too bright and would distract the viewer(s) from from the details.

(process of version 3)

Soon enough, I decided that I should move on from paint and try another material. So I tried digital, as in my spare time I like to draw and practice my skills digitally, on my iPad using Procreate.

Staying with the same techniques as my other pieces, I used different shades of red instead of black.

Throughout all of my works, I used the colour red, which 'is a popular colour in Chinese culture, symbolising luck, joy, and happiness. It also represents celebration, vitality and fertility in traditional Chinese colour symbolism.'

(version 4)

My main inspiration for these pieces are from my favourite video game, created by a Chinese company in Shanghai, Genshin Impact. The game consists of 7 nations, each nation and character has a different element that they possess, and each nation is based from real life architecture and places in the world. Each character in the game has their own constellation, and this one is called Papilla Charontis, which means, in Latin, 'Butterfly of Charon,' which references an extinct butterfly and Greek mythos' Charon: ferrymen that carried souls of the newly-deceased across the river Styx, which runs through the border of the living and the dead.

"Each nation takes inspiration from real-life nations and cultures: "Mondstadt" is German for "moon city", and takes inspiration from medieval Western Germany; Liyue (璃月, Jade Moon) is based on China; Inazuma (稲妻, lightning) is based on Japan; Sumeru, named after Mount Meru, takes inspiration from North Africa, West and South Asia; Fontaine, (French for "Fountain") is based on France; Natlan is based on Indigenous America, Latin America and West African Cultures; and Snezhnaya (Снежная, snowy) takes inspiration from Russia." - Wiki page.

The butterfly inspiration for my pieces are based from a character from the city Liyue, which is based from China. The characters name is Hu Tao ("who-towe"), and she is a funeral director, helping people get to the afterlife, and in China, butterflies are seen as a symbol or rebirth after death, because when one butterfly dies, it becomes two, it means that the deceased person is reborn into another life. Hu Tao's element is pyro (which is fire), and in China, fire means "summer and enthusiasm; nature at its peak of growth, and warmth in human relationships," which matches with her warm and sometimes bubbly personality.

Before this I had experimented with other materials, such as Lino, where I carved out an image before rolling on some ink and then pressing it onto card, where it would create an image. This inspired my main project from the game, apart from that this is from another characters constellation, with it being called Dracaena Somnolenta, which means 'sleeping serpent' in Japanese, as the place where this character is from, Inazuma, is based on Japan. I had experimented with the use of colours before settling on the colour blue as the characters element is hydro (water), and the serpent appears underwater in-game.

In the Japanese culture, water symbolises purification and life. Without water, there would be no life. One belief is that waterfalls are sacred and standing under them is considered purifying.

(processes of these works to the final version)

Research - Historic and Depicting art - 2 artists

Historic art is the study of objects of art considered within their time period. Art historians analyse visual arts' meaning (painting, sculpture, architecture) at the time they were created and by looking at art from the past contributes to who we are as people. By looking at what has been done before, we gather knowledge and inspiration that contribute to how we speak, feel, and view the world around us. We also can compare artwork, which provides different perspectives, and gives us a well-rounded way of looking at events, situations, and people. By analysing artworks from the past and looking at their details, we can rewind time and experience what a time period different from our own was like. 

Whereas art depiction is a reference that is conveyed through pictures. A picture that refers to its object through a non-linguistic two-dimensional scheme and is distinct from writing or notation. A depictive is called a ‘picture plane.’

Pictures would be made with various materials and techniques, such as painting, drawing, or prints (including photography and movies) mosaics, tapestries, stained glass, and collages of unusual and disparate elements. Occasionally, picture-like features may be recognised in simple inkblots, accidental stains, peculiar clouds or a glimpse of the moon, but these are special cases, and it is controversial whether they count as genuine instances of depiction.

An artist example of this is French painter Georges Seurat, and his most famous painting, ‘A Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte Bathers at Asniéres.’ Seurat devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough surface. His artistic personality combined qualities that are usually thought of as opposed and incompatible: on the one hand, his extreme and delicate sensibility, on the other, a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind. The large scale of the famous work (1884 – 1886) altered the direction of modern art by initialising Neo-Impressionism and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.

Another artist for example is Christo and Jeanne-Claude, they were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and landscape elements wrapped in fabric, including the Wrapped Reichstag, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, in California, and The Gates in New York City's Central Park.

Their work was typically large, visually impressive, and controversial, often taking years and sometimes decades of careful preparation, which includes technical solutions, political negotiation, permitting and environmental approval, hearings and public persuasion. The pair refused grants, scholarships, donations or public money, instead financing the work via the sale of their own artwork.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude described the elements that brought the projects to fruition as integral to the artwork itself, and said their projects contained no deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic impact; their purpose being simply for joy, beauty, and new ways of seeing the familiar.

One of their most famous works is 'Wrapped Reichstag.' Rita Süssmuth, the newly-elected President of the Bundestag, expressed interest in the project in 1989, precipitating its approval. The project had been rejected three times across six Bundestag presidents and 24 years before its 1994 vote for approval. Wrapped Reichstag mounted in 1995 for two weeks as 100,000 square meters of silver fabric draped the building and fastened with blue rope. The Reichstag, which had not been in use, was later reconstructed for parliamentary use in 1999. Christo described the Reichstag wrapping as autobiographical. It became symbolic of unified Germany and marked Berlin's return as a world city.