For my final piece in regards to this years theme, Growth and Evolution, I decided to create an installation piece inspired by the raw elements of Phyllida Barlow's piece 'Dock' and Dan Perjovschi's installation style.
Left - Phyllida Barlow - Dock (Tate Britain) Above - Dan Perjovschi's work.
The idea of my piece is to question the spectator of our own existence and evolution. I wanted to question whether humans have really evolved as far from our primitive beings as we believe that we have - I noted our natural primitive instincts which occur in everyday life (such as the need for survival, protection etc.) and I also looked into the Freudian Theory - our Life Instinct (sex) and our Death Instinct (suppressed desire for self destruction); thus, Sex and Death.
I painted the base of my boards/walls matt black so that I could create a 'chalkboard' effect for my chalk line drawings and text. I chose the colour scheme of black and white as I wanted them to completely contrast, just like Sex (life) and Death and it was my preferred appearance of Dan Perjovschi's installations (who also used black walls with white line drawings - or sometimes black on white). I think these colours worked well as they definitely contrasted well which made the white advance from the background and the chalk drawings portrayed rawness which depicts our raw, primitive species as line drawings on walls have been created by humans throughout years of our existence - even in our more primitive state.
My line drawings in chalk each depict a natural human instinct linked to Sex and Death and the style was inspired by Perjovschi, as I used 'simplistic' stick drawings as they are easy to understand and will relate to all audiences. Once again, the also reflect how 'undeveloped' humans are in comparison to a detailed, practiced and perfected painted.
My Installation also had a sense of spontaneity about it - just like 'Dock' by Phyllida Barlow. I didn't plan my drawings until I was in the room and ready to begin. This allowed my drawings to be exposed as I didn't think about them too much as I just drew what came to mind. The layout was also fairly spontaneous as I was ripping up different unplanned words from the newspaper during the exam and working with what I had and visually worked well. I did however use blue-tac to temporarily place my separate elements (such as articles) so that the composition could be adjusted as I progressed.
I decided for the text 'HAVE WE EVOLVED?' to be the primary focus point as it's at the centre-top of the middle wall and also the largest of all components. I did his as I wanted the viewers to look at the question so that they can bear it in mind while observing the rest of the installation as I didn't want the idea to be too obscured. I also want my audience to be still be questioning this when they leave the installation. Another focal point within my piece are the two more detailed drawings which each symbolise a phallic object (sex/life) and a sharp deadly object (death) which is used for securing coffins.
Overall I am happy with how my final piece came out; I think it's interesting and effective at questioning the viewer. I'm particularly pleased with the combination of 2D and 3D surfaces as it's interesting and a bit more unique, while I also like how simplistic yet effective the chalk drawings are on the black background. It was difficult not to smudge the chalk and to reduce chalk fallouts when drawing near the top of the boards, as I wanted to keep the black as dark as possible as the rubber sometimes removed the black paint or left a visible mark which needed to be painted over. Also for a spontaneous layout, I think that it worked well as I was able to move things around and see how the different scales worked - despite the layout being unplanned, I still mentally made margins and rulers on the walls so all of the components were in columns, rows or other shapes, so that it's easy to follow and not a clutter.
