Final Sculpture

Artist Statement - Final Sculpture

Wire, Painter's Tape, Paper Bags, Garden Soil Bag, Chinese Food Box

5 x 4 1/2 x 4 1/4"

This project was one that really surprised me. Our assignment was to create a sculpture using recycled materials, which I instantly liked. In this project, "one man's trash is another man's treasure" really is true. Since I was remote, I did find it a little difficult to find materials, but luckily we had some paper bags from the grocery store, and as you can see, I found other materials to add. I was very surprised at how this turned out, as I originally only had the paper bags to work with. I knew that a lot of these types of sculptures are very colourful, and I was worried that mine would be bland.

I used many more materials than I normally do in my projects. I started off with the wire cube from my wire sculpture project, because it happened to be the shape I needed. Then I added painter's tape, as seen in the armature picture, which helped soften the hard lines of the wire and make it easier to attach materials to. Then I started to add lengths of of the paper bags. I tried to layer as much as possible to give visual interest to the piece. When I went looking for more colourful materials, I found a garden soil bag and an old Chinese takeout box. I cut out the logo and graphics from the takeout box and added them in places over the paper. Then I cut a ribbon out of the garden bag, and tied it around the box just like a gift.

My first idea for this project was a gift box, so I didn't do much searching to find a good idea. However, I did look at some images of other artist's work to get a sense of what mine should look like. Their work was mostly large-scale and made of materials like soda cans and colourful plastic, which I didn't have access to. I felt a little daunted, but I got to work. After adding the paper, I wasn't feeling very optimistic, but after adding the final touches, and the piece was more colourful, I felt much happier. Those few things really made the piece, and I ended up quite proud of it, especially considering it was only made out of recycling.