Goodness, it's been a while. School has really been kicking my arse. Time to catch up...
In sculpture III, we just had a critique yesterday. We were to make a piece using wood and/or metal as well as one other material. The connections and measurements had to relate to our body somehow. I waffled for about a week and a half, having a lot of trouble deciding on an idea. Sometimes I go to the scrap bin in the sculpture studio to find inspirational castoffs- and I found a few lengths of rope, some really thick, some thin, and decided I had to use it. After playing with it for a bit, I decided I liked how the rope look when folded together & bound with wire, like this-
After that, the loop at the top of the folded rope inspired me to lash it to... something. I still didn't really know what I was doing, but I did decide to make the rope the length of both of my arms. The spaces in between each wire binding the rope is the length of my tongue. Already, these decisions had a censorship/bondage theme, so I ran with it.
Then I found a nice 2x2 piece of wood in the bin (I didn't pay a damn thing to make this project), and then two bracket-type metal things that immediately made me think of shackles. I drilled those to the 2x2 & installed an eyehook at the top.
After this, I lashed the thick rope to the 2x2 with thinner rope. All in all, it's a really simple design... and that's exactly what I had the most trouble with. I tend to overload my pieces with too much symbolism and don't allow my (ideal) audience to make their own conclusions. I had a fellow student help with my install, and when I was freaking out about it being too plain/lacking, she told me to leave it alone, it looked done and had a minimalist feel to it. I'm glad she said that!
Here is the final product.
Overall, the message I intend for this piece is this: Religion is mental bondage. Interpret that how you will, but I think it's pretty fucking self-explanatory. Religion (take your pick) imposes arbitrary rules upon one's life, requires one to submit themselves to one or more gods, and I think this ties into (no pun intended) my piece very well. Remember that the bottom part of the crucifix had the measurements of my arms & tongue? To me, religious doctrine takes away your voice and your power.
I hold nothing but bitter disgust and sadness and questions in my heart when it comes to this subject.
-Karla
This blog entry title is the name of a song by Lurker of Chalice, a favorite depressive black metal artist of mine. I felt it was also appropriate for the idea of religion "piercing where it might", getting it's sticky claws into my mind. Enjoy...
