Daniel Wiener | Sculpture, Painting and Other Projects » Open Source Sculpture

Making A Table

danielwiener — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:18:15 +0000

Making a Table “Flare and Falter”, a selection of images

Better Than Sculpture

danielwiener — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:00:08 +0000

Sometimes “engineering” is better than run-of-the-mill contemporary sculpture. The marble machine depicted below is created by xeniaguy2 (I could not find out his real name) and it looks like it is something he is making as a “hobby”. Even though it is easily described as a “Rube Goldberg” contraption, it displays a sense of grace and a power of invention that enthralls, intensifying its significance beyond its apparent means.

Also, it is an example of “open source” in the real three dimensional world, since it lays bare its mechanisms and their principles. It shows you how it is doing what it is doing and teaches along the way. (Ironically much of our created environment, before the digital, is “open source”).

So, three cheers for xeniaguy2. I look forward to more installments, as he continues this amazing project.

Sculpture Center – Trash Cans

danielwiener — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:48:37 +0000

Proposal for the Sculpture Center 2009

PROPOSAL: THE SHORT VERSION

I propose to make 3 sculpture/trash cans to be placed in appropriate locations throughout the Sculpture Center. Each sculpture/trashcan will be fully functional as both trashcan and sculpture. See the images below for suggested placement of the sculpture/trash cans and photographs of maquettes.

PROPOSAL: THE LONG VERSION

THREE REASONS MY SCULPTURE AND TRASH CANS HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON

The Trojan Trash Can

Sculptures take up much space and therefore require a large and unusual commitment from the user. Recently I’ve been sneaking sculpture into everyday environments in the guise of other kinds of object. I’ve challenged myself to see sculpture as a table or half-table half-sculpture or a vase. The uselessness of sculptural reverie enters the functional object like a Trojan Horse. So why not a trashcan?

Animated Vessels

Throughout time vessels have taken on the form of many living things – animals, human bodies, faces, body parts, plants and mythical beings. The source for an animated vessel is the comparison of forms – the weaving tendrils of incense smoke mirrored in the peak of the lid of an incense burner (see image below, figure 1), the ocean spewed from the mouth of Neptunein a column of fury is like the leg of a Rococco coffee pot (see image below, figure 2), and the head of cartoon characters is likened to the cap of a soap bottle. (see image below, figure 3). Algorithm for a Crazy Vase on a Table shows one of my more abstract animated vessels. I imagine a trashcan as an animated vessel – a hybrid of object and imagination.

Obscure Spaces Hide Garbage

I see my sculpture/trashcans as interactive. Imagine placing your hand into the dark unknown hole of a sculpture and dropping your waste into its unseen center. In contrast to much modern and contemporary sculpture where what you see is what you get, not every surface of my sculptures can be seen. In holes and crevices, forms are obscured in the blackness of shadow. The dramatic use of light and shade is the physical equivalent for emotional states in my sculptures, “picturing” the hidden, discarded aspects of one’s interior life. A trash receptacle is the way-station for things we need to dispose, while sculpture, or at least my sculpture, is a container for inner garbage. My sculpture/trashcans are both.

TRASH AND SCULPTURE

Sculpture is made from throwaways.

There is a long history of using trash in sculpture from the collages of the Cubists, through Robert Raushenberg to Jessica Stockholder and Rachel Harrison. What happens when the terms are switched – the autonomous sculptural object contains the detritus rather than being made out of it?

Sculpture is thrown away

Having made sculpture for the last 30 years I have, like many sculptors, had to throw many sculptures away because I could not continue to store them. My sculpture/trashcans can be viewed as a memorial to all the sculpture that has been thrown away by my kindred out of creative necessity.

TRASHCANS IN SPACE

A Billion Turds

As a sculptor I have emphasized the private aspects of art-making, creating intimate emotionally-laden objects intended for the private musings of other individuals. Trashcans pose an intriguing intersection of the public and the private for an artist with my predilection. The trashcan is a public place to satisfy the private need to throw away one’s trash. In our era, a multitude of private acts have become a public crisis. The private need to flush away one’s waste becomes the public problem of what to do with a billion turds.

Hidden in Plain View

Trashcans are most often placed off to the side in unused spaces. They collect discarded objects, they reside in discarded places. At the opposite end of the spectrum, an art object is conventionally placed in the center of a room and spotlighted. The trashcan is meant to be invisible, except when needed, while an art object’s raison d’etre is to be seen. A trashcan may be a mobile and independent object but it shares the focus on forgotten spaces with site-specific intstallations. The challenge of creating sculpture/trashcans will be to make sure they are “hidden in plain view”.

The Trash Can as Watering Hole

In a motion study done by architects designing a kitchen, it was found that the place where “cooks” paths interesect most often is the trash can. Traffic bottlenecks occurred throwing trash away. They found that the trash can turns out to be a meeting place like a watering hole, or like the town square where all paths converge. Even though a trash can is placed out of the way, it is contradictorily a focal point. I plan to highlight the contradictory nature of trash cans in my project.

CONCLUSION

The long history of the Sculpture Center’s support for experimentation and play has inspired this project. I am very excited to propose these idiosyncratic objects meant to draw people to obscure places.

Algorithm for a Crazy Vase

danielwiener — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:24:14 +0000

Openness, transparency and the sharing of knowledge is the ethos of much of the internet and social media. In that spirit, I am trying my hand at “open source” sculpture and write histories of my sculptures. Perhaps you will find it useful.

Algorithm for a “Crazy” Vase

December 2008 – April 2009

Desire

I want to make an “animated vessel”.

I piece some plasticine sketches that have been laying around the studio for years to begin modeling its shape.

Its form is loosely based on a face.

Making the Model out of Plasticine

To the left are four views and a few states of the “crazy” vase in plasticine, an oil-based modeling clay. Plasticine does not dry and is used to make “positives” for casts.

The final state can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the photos to the left

Notice What Happens

Sometimes things happen and I want to save them for some other use. I save the scraps from “carving” the plasticine and use them in this piece and others to create a surface texture.

The top of the “crazy” vase catches my attention and I want to make a piece based on the way it looks.

January 16, 2009

Making a Box to Hold the Mold

Measuring, cutting, fitting. clamping, screwing a box together to hold the liquid mold rubber, while it dries. Being very careful it will not leak, there are double bonds over every seam and caulk on every seam or gap, as well. It’s worth the trouble.

January 25, 2009 – February 5, 2009

Pouring Rubber for Mold

The box has been made. Note the overlapping boards at the corners and the caulk.

I pour the rubber in sections, 8 – 15 inches high, so that I will be able to reach in and press the Apoxie-Sculpt into the mold when I am making the vase. I like to make sure the rubber cures for about 8 hours between pours so that it does not stick to itself. I spray the plasticine positive and the cured rubber with mold release so the rubber won’t stick to them. I usually spray twice, because I am compulsive and don’t like spending hours fixing mistakes. I use Polytek 74-30 for the rubber mold. It is of medium hardness – flexible enough to separate from the complex shape with many undercuts and firm enough for the pressure when creating the “cast”.

I also make “keys” out of plasticine so the sections fit together nicely (see top right corner of the upper photograph.)

I did not take photos of the preparation of the Polytek 74-30. But my advice is to stir thoroughly (2 minutes) and cover your work area with plastic. It is messy and sticky. Be careful not to contaminate Part A with Part B (and visa versa) by keeping your tools, buckets, lids, etc. separate from each other.

February 8, 2009

Removing the Rubber from Plasticine Positive

With a sharp utility knife I slice the rubber through to the plasticine. Sometimes one slice is enough, other times I need to cut the segment into many parts to pull it off the plasticine. The bottom segment is particularly stubborn so I use a crow bar to pry it apart.

Usually the plasticine gets mangles during this process. Before I start to make a “cast” I spend time cleaning the plasticine off the inner surfaces of the rubber using clay tools.

Preparing the Apoxie Sculpt and Choosing Colors

I guesstimate how much Apoxie Sculpt I will need. I decide on 16,000 grams total, which means I need 8,000 grams of Part A. I want to use 6 colors with dark blue as the outer layer. Using my homemade color swatches and mixing up a few colors I decide on the following. The decision is intuitive because I know the colors will mix in this process in ways I cannot predict. Only so much planning is effective – the rest is left to luck and chance.

I decide to use the following colors:

Light Yellow – 1000g
500g yellow + 500g white

Yellow Orange – 1000g
500g yellow + 500g orange

Purple – 1000g
500g blue + 500g red

Dark Blue – 3000g
2800g blue + 200g black

Light Blue – 1000g
500g blue + 500g white

Blue (right from the tub) – 1000g

Photos to the left – figuring, weighing, piles of Part A and Part B prepared and ready to be mixed. I have separated them into 3 batches. If I mix too much at a time it will harden while I am working with it.

Mixing the Apoxie Sculpt

I mix the Part A and Part B of the Apoxie-Sculpt on a wooden table, sponging the table often with a damp sponge. The table should be slightly wet but you should not be able to see the water. Too much water creates slop and if there is not enough the Apoxie-Sculpt will stick to the table. I mix it the same way that you wedge clay.

Making a Slab of Layered Color

The colors are laid out in approximately 12″ square slabs, one on top of the other. In the following order:

Purple
Yellow Orange
Light Blue
Light Yellow
Blue
Dark Blue

Flatten out the stack of colors to approximately 1″ high. Cut into quarters. Stack each piece making sure the color layers are in the same order. Flatten out again to to approximately 1″ high. Repeat this twice.

The only reason that care is needed is so each segment of the mold matches. When the piece is cast I don’t want the segmentation to be too obvious. I make a mistake with this piece repeating this process 3 times for the first batch of colors (making the layers very thin) and only repeated it twice for the next two batches. It is interesting to see how the colors combine in different ways given how many times they were layered and flattened. Since my method is experimental I only notice the difference once I do it.

Flatten out the slab of colors to 18″ across and 30″ long, using a rolling pin, and the heal of the hand. Use mineral oil as a lubricant, but not too much.

In the process of flattening, the slab is flipped several times. Now dark blue is on the top. Dark blue will be on the outside of the sculpture and so will be laid against the surface of the mold.

Pressing the Cast

Reattach 2 walls of the original box built for the mold to use as a guide for the mold segments.

Press small portions of the Apoxie Sculpt slab into all the nooks and crannies of the mold. Press over and over and over, to make sure there is a good impression.

The outside of the vase is hidden from view so I work blind and only by feel. The inside of the vase looks promising but I have no idea what is happening to the outside.

I like processes like this – lots of method and control but an equal lack of control. I like to see what happens when the two systems battle it out. I also like the idea of making sculpture, a tactile art, literally “by feel”.

Mixing the Apoxie Sculpt and pressing it into the mold takes 4 – 6 hours without a break. If the Apoxie-Sculpt dries between batches it might not mix together “beautifully”.

February 10, 2009

Pulling the Vase Out of the Mold

Pulling the mold off the vase is a vigorous activity. Sometime I use a chisel to chip of the seams so the mold will release. It is very exciting to finally see what the sculpture looks like.

Disappointment

I am disappointed when I see the whole thing. There are passages I like but the shapes are confused by the color. They fight with each other making the vase hard to see.

Its ugliness is plain old ugliness rather than the compelling, intense, passionate ugliness I have envisioned.

I tell myself not think about it. There is much more work to be done before the vase is finished. Possibly the work will “solve” the vase’s problem. But I wish, just for once, that a project would succeed right off the bat without struggle and disappointment. That is not the way of sculpture. Alas.

February 12 – 25, 2009

Fixing the Seams, Carving Away the Surface.

Carve away the seams. Carve imperfections in the impression to unify shapes and lines. Fill areas with Apoxie-Sculpt to smooth seams and create more believable transitions from one shape to another. In other words, fix it up, clean it up.

Chipping away the dark blue surface to reveal the brightly colored patterns makes the piece come alive and resolve many of its “problems”. I discovered what the piece is about, its hidden nature, exposing its inner wildness.

March 6, 2009

Making a Table Top for the Vase

I make a tabletop for the “crazy” vase using the same colors as are in the vase. I know that the table should be “plain” without too much color but I can’t restrain myself. And so there is some color.

I make the tabletop (not shown here) and rasp it down and sand a little to get an idea of what the surface will be like when it is finished.

But the Table Top Doesn’t Work

I place the “crazy” vase on it but don’t like the combination. The tabletop is the wrong shape and has too much color and does not work with the sculpture. Back to the drawing board. However the tabletop, once finished, will be a nice one… for something else.

March 13, 2009

An Unexpected Decision

Occasionally I ask my wife, Alice, into the studio to get her thoughts on a work in progress. She is in the studio looking at another piece when I ask her about placing the “crazy” vase on a table. On a whim I grab the gaudiest tabletop and both of us decide, much to our surprise and against expectation that we like the two together.

You never know what will happen.

March 24, 2009

Matching and Preparing Colors for the Table Legs

I match the colors of this table top by checking my color swatches and mixing color by trial and error. I pick four colors in the table top to be repeated in the table legs.

Color Recipe for Table Stand

Bright Pink – 2000g
1800g red + 200g white

Dark Red – 400g
380g red + 20g black

Light Blue – 400g
240g blue + 160g white

Gray – 400g
320g white + 80g black

Making the Table Legs

Holding up the tabletop with 20″ 1×5′s, I wire together some sculpture “leftovers” to make the foundation for the table legs and then secure the structure with the four Apoxie-Sculpt colors.

Slowly, the table legs are covered with Bright Pink, Dark Red, Light Blue and Gray.

The height is adjusted so the tabletop is level and extensions are added to stabilize the table.

Gaps are filled in the tabletop with matching colors, then rasped down to be flat and true.

The tabletop is sanded with progressively fine sandpaper (60 grit, 120 grit, 150 grit, 240 grit and 600 grit), rubbed with 000 steelwool and oiled with mineral oil.

Looking at the Crazy Vase in its Most Recent State

Spend a moment to look at the vase on its table and ponder on it.

It is almost finished but I must wait for money to buy time and materials before I can continue.

Blooming

danielwiener — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:41:34 +0000

Green Vase || February – March 2009

Color Samples

Recipe
Dark Green – 95 green and 5 black
Dark Blue – 95 blue and 5 black

Blue –

Dark Green – 70%
Dark Blue – 15%
Blue – 15%

Measuring

Weighing Out Some Dark Blue

Febuary 25, 2009 (approximately)

Cleaning up

Rasping and Sanding "Flute" of Vase

Cleaning up

Checking the color of the opening. dusted and added a little Butcher Block Oil

March 6, 2009

Building a Stand – Step 1

Building a stand for the green vase. I set it atop a pile of plasticine and balanced it there by attaching tie wire to the ceiling.

Building a Stand – Step 2

Adding coils to make a stand. Protecting the vase with saran wrap and plasticine, so that the Apoxie Sculpt on the stand does not adhere to the vase and so that the vase can lift out of the stand. Worked on the stand. Added some supports. Just a little bit at a time.

Building a Stand – Step 3

Making the coils in dark green, dark blue and blue.

First batch
300 Dark Green
300 Dark Blue
150 Blue

Second batch (better proportions)
140 Dark Green
30 Dark Blue

30 Blue

Building a Stand – Step 4

A few more coils added so the vase will stay in place. And look "right".

March 12, 2009

Building a Stand – Step 5

First Batch of the day
Dark Green – (665 green + 35 black) + 700 part B = 1400 grams
Dark Blue – 120 + 120 part b = 240 grams

Blue – 120 + 120 part b = 240 grams

Adding to the stand. Start setting up to lay apoxie-sculpt coils over plasticine to extend stand.

Changed My Mind

— Changed my mind and decided to clean up the vase. Feel like I am obsessing/fussing with the stand and should not be. Let the piece be the piece. "Fix" the stand later, if it still bothers me.

So I spent the day, carving and sanding imperfections and mold seams and filling gaps and holes with Dark Green.

Filling Indentations

Filling indentations, "eye" with the following:

25 grams – 25% yellow, 75% green + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

25 grams – 50% yellow, 50% green + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

25 grams – Dark Blue + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

25 grams – (50% Yellow Green (25% yellow, 75% green) + 50% Orange) + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

Then looking at the vase on the stand to see what it looks like up to this point.

March 13, 2009

Changed My Mind Again – Building a Stand – Step 6

–Changed my mind again with the help of Alice and decided to build the stand about 2 feet higher.

Setting up plasticene for extending stand. About 20" higher than the original stand, so that the top of the vase is about 4′ high. The stand is in the white bucket, top down.

Building a Stand – Step 7

The extension to the stand is made from:

Dark Green – (1300 green + 200 black) grams + 1500 Part B = 3000 grams

Dark Blue – (950 blue + 100 black) grams + 1000 Part B = 2000 grams

Blue – 1000 grams + 1000 grams Part B = 2000 grams

I made almost too much. Hard work to prepare it all and roll it out before it started to set. I will have to carve the plasticene out from inside the piece, more than I would like.

Cleaning Up

More sanding.

Filling Indentations

Adding more of the following to the indentation… in the lower part of the vase.

25 grams – 25% yellow, 75% green + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

25 grams – 50% yellow, 50% green + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

25 grams – Dark Blue + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

25 grams – (50% Yellow Green (25% yellow, 75% green) + 50% Orange) + 25 grams Part B = 50 grams

And some more sanding… down to 220, or so.

March 14, 2009

Building a Stand – Step 8

Fixing the stand, adding "legs" so that it stands up, doesn’t fall down.

300 Dark Green [30 black + 270 green] + 300 Part B = 600 grams

60 Dark Blue + 60 Part B = 120 grams

60 Blue + 60 Part B = 120 grams

Think I need to buy more green. Sanded more. 220 and lower.

Cleaning Up

000 Steel wool. Almost done.

March 21, 2009

Green Vase on the Stand

Almost done. A few more coils for the stand. Waiting to order more apoxie-sculpt but don’t have the money.