During my sculptural work I have been working in monochrome, using only metallic black paint for my large sculptures. This decision was based on a decision to create a aesthetic to my sculptures which is ambiguous to whether it is natural or artifical. There are some minerals and lava formed rocks which take on this deep gray appearance, however the obviously artifical metallic finish counter balancing this affect. Furthermore the single colour darkness of the objects adds to the confrontational aspects of the pieces and makes them even more difficult to relate to and explain.
However as I have continued to produce various forms the appearance became more familiar and 'rock like' therefore I have experimented with colour. The below image shows a small prototype sculpture I made using the same process as the larger pieces, I have however used a flourescent pink paint as I wanted to offset the other pieces and create something overtly artifical. I find this piece really interesting as once I placed in with the larger pieces in a clean white environment the small pink object appears to have as much pressence and power as the bigger black objects for the boldness of its colour. I was then drawn to the scale of the object and how the colour gives it a pressence much bigger than its small form. It is a colour which we would directly relate to the artifical and mass production, it can not be seen in the natural world which creates contrasts with the large pieces and makes the entire environment difficult to comprehend.
I feel this piece was sucessful for it's monochrome of flourescent colour. Having previously experimented with mixed and dripping artifical colours onto a failed test piece I felt this wasn't sucessful and detracted from the objects form and pressence as the main focus.
I did however also experiment with what would happen if I took real rocks and natural objects to cover in the artifical paints. Though I found this interesting and it created a odd feeling of replusion and destruction to cover natural in this artifical sludge, I did not find this experiment as powerful as a finished piece as I have found with the small pink rock.
Looking for further inspiration for combining sculpture and painterly aesthetics I have researched the feminist artist Linda Benglis. These works were a minicking of Jackson Pollock's flinging and dripping methods from a feminist perspective. She used layers of mulitcoloured beeswax to create her pieces. I find her work aesthetically very interesting as the pieces create a appearance of movement. However I find it most relevant how she is able to use bold and erractic use of colour to address such bold and provokative themes regarding feminism and sexulatity.
