Developing a new body of work for Hexagon, a six person show coming up in the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray this November. Continuing on from my MA work, I want to develop a modular, adaptable artwork which I can play with at the venue and respond to the space and the other artist’s work. I also want the work to come out of the dedicated gallery area, and make appearances  throughout the building, though maybe subtly, almost in a subliminal way.

Because I’ve designed the pieces from triangular shapes, they can form hexagons (crap literal reference to the show’s title not intended – much) and will form repeat patterns readily which may be useful for 2d work. Could engage with wall or floor space that way, or maybe form stencils for something. A bit of a snowflakey vibe going on at the moment, because the pieces are white, which I’m not sure I like. Then the show will run over Christmas I suppose.

I’m probably mostly interested in the 3d sculptural aspect of the work, and how they can fit together to form structures. Playing around to see the different ways they can do this. I Like the idea of having one or more potentially large structures, maybe forming a path for the viewer to navigate. Or maybe the viewer can actually manipulate the work themselves in areas?

I’m considering printing some colour or imagery on them if I can work out a way of doing it that makes sense. Might make them a little bigger too, and work out a way to make a large edition of them (I’ll be needing shitloads.)

For my final show in my MA I made this modular, adaptable artwork, and changed its form continually for the duration of the exhibition. This post will be a day by day visual diary of the progress of the work as I, (and others) change it every night for viewing the next day.

Day 1

 

Day 2

 

Day 3

Authored by the 3rd year students of Interior Architecture, St. John’s College.

 

Day 4

 

Day 5

 

Day 6

First group crit. Having developed and refined the design of a modular system of art-making during the previous months, I continued to work with them and use them to build up a vocabulary of forms. Experimenting with manipulating the pieces around existing objects and environments.

 

Working with the existing architecture in the studio space. Interested in the tension between the work playing an apparent structural role like a buttress, while actually being totally functionless.

 

While considering dispersing the work through the room during the final show, I began to make scale models of the studio space to begin to conceptualise doing this. I got interested in exploring the relationship between these models and the aesthetics & function of the work itself. It generated some imagery which could be useful.

 

Became interested in the relationship the work could have when paired with existing functional objects, in this case objects that were actually involved in its original fabrication.

 

Decided for final show to fabricate a large amount of the modular pieces, and vary the design to include larger pieces that were exactly the length as three original ones. This was both to make construction with them faster, and to vary the aesthetic texture of the resulting work. Looked into an automated production method using a CNC cutter, but this wasn’t feasible, so all pieces had to be machined by hand using a band saw, and then finished and assembled by hand.

 

After about a month of working on the pieces, I now had several hundred units to work with. Made so many to have the option of building ambitious structures of some spectacle, should the work dictate that. In advance of the show experimented with constructing larger structures than I’d been able to before, trying to intuitively respond to the location and the rule-set inherent in the work itself.

 

Some pictures from the stint we had at the Wandesford gallery. Decided to use it to try out different ways of working with the modular pieces. Wanted to see how I could engage with the particular architectural features of the space.

 

Also explored the use of the area outside of the gallery.

 

I took the opportunity as well to try the work out in the context of some of the other artists’ work that was present. A form of art stalking.

 

 

More architecturalish things. This one had an almost biological feel to it. Weird. Trying to make an artwork which doesn’t have a finite, unchanging outcome.

Beginning to work with vaguely architectural forms now. This piece was about a metre and a half tall.

Modular pieces refined more now, using woodwork workshop to make them more accurately, thanks to Liam Rice for all the help. Can build free-standing forms with a lot more stability now. Beginning to try and build up a vocabulary of forms.

Early attempt to make a modular system to build artworks with, and use it with a pre-existing object.