Artist Inspired Project

Artist Statement

This piece is a sculpture of a man appearing to be made out of balloons. It was inspired by the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti and the work of Jeff Koons. To create this piece, I used polymer clay over a wire armature. I also used a coat o clear nail polish to create the shiny look. I was conflicted when I was told to create a piece combining Giacometti's work with another artist's. But I soon realized that a lot could be done with the relatively bleak sculptures he created that represented victims of the Holocaust. I decided to run with Jeff Koons' style of making things into balloon animals, so I modeled my sculpture off of one of Giacometti's, only this one I made a balloon.

I used shape and texture a lot in this piece. I used shape to determine the look of each limb and piece of the body, and had to shape them to be round and gentile. I also used texture because I wanted the surface of the clay to be very smooth and shiny to replicate balloons. My project evolved because I hadn't really figured out how I was going to mount my piece until the time to do so actually came. I was rather stumped, until I found a stone coaster in my house that nobody was using. I wrapped it in duct tape and also used the tape to connect my piece to the base.

The meaning behind this piece is that I was trying to take something quite harsh and rather depressing, and make it just a little bit less so. I do not mean to disrespect the victims of the Holocaust, I just wanted to make his sad work a little bit less sad. It relates to my life because, in my group of friends, I am usually the one who cheers up people when a problem shows up. I act as the funny one who makes people feel better, which is sort of what this sculpture was supposed to do. If i could make it stronger, I might add more nail polish to make it shinier, because I would really like it to be. Also, i would probably smooth out some of the transitions between the body and the limbs.