The core of my project is the ‘suspension of disbelief’. I aimed to make a series of objects that develop a mythos around them, combining different ways of storytelling.
My work this term, in its physical sense, was to develop my raising abilities. Throughout the past year where I have raised, I never managed to create too complex of a shape. In this project, I understood the metal more through trial and error, creating samples with straight corners and trying out new strategies to make the shapes I saw challenging. The initial iterations of the triangular and rectangular vessels failed due to my lack of understanding, so I adapted to the copper and perfected what I wanted to do. Going along with my drive to create a narrative with my objects, I needed to give these shapes a reason to exist and soon the objects became ‘artefacts of the past’.
For the past several years, my work has been referential of Roland Barthes and his theories of semiotics and mythos. These objects are meant to create a myth around them by existing separated from all other parts of a system, being in isolation from historical objects that we are aware of. Essentially, the pieces rely on the signifier of ‘vessel of worship’. Once combined with the signified; the physical form of the vessels, a sign is created. To create a mythos around the vessels we employ a secondary signified that gives additional context to the piece. This signified refers to what the object represents, gaining meaning from additional context surrounding the vessels, the finish, the baseless design, the form, the why.
The opportunity of this style of make is getting to know the object as you make it. When raising, I had to understand that the bases should vary depending on how the vessel was used. I had to decode that the thin neck of the bottles suggested that their purpose was to fill up the larger piece and not the other way round. The idea that the pieces are meant to be carried when full was satisfying to come up with and is a perfect example of environmental storytelling. In addition, the fact that this is just my interpretation of the objects, relates to the theme of ancient artefacts, there could be more to the story… I have an opportunity to continuing to develop on this mythos whenever as its purely fictional – every vessel I make now, for example, could add another piece to the fiction that surrounds these pieces.
All in all, I believe that I have created a strong narrative with my pieces, using my collection of research throughout the years. I have created something that when thought about can suspend the audience in disbelief and believe that these pieces once had other properties, whilst leaving room for those that want to decipher it themselves to do so - alas, these are meant to be ‘found’ objects and so, there’s a possibility that I misunderstood them myself.