Being Human: Making a Monster
I’m starting to imagine my contribution to a modular metal form, that we shape as a class into something monstrous. What do we perceive as monstrous, and why? I start with figures from history (Hitler or Stalin, mass murderers on an international scale); from literature (Frankenstein, cobbled together from bits and pieces, given life by a human usurping the role of God); from mythology (Cerberus, Medusa, both with altered bodies [3-headed dog, snakes for hair] and threatening to kill); or from dystopian literature (characters from Handmaid’s Tale, or Cyborgs, again with danger or threat to some or to all). Common themes… dangerous and fear-inducing; altered bodies that are hybrids of different creatures or of machine and creature; the fear of difference; the absence of conscience (or is that the presence of evil?). Some are universally threatening to all humans (e.g. Cyborgs), others persecute or attack subgroups (e.g. Nazis exterminating Jews). Some existed, some were imagined. Some are monstrous in appearance, some appear “normal” but act monstrously. (Also realizing that in Unit One, we were making hybrids, but not necessarily monsters, so intent and context matter. ) So, riffing on the title of the other assignment in Unit Two, I realize that Everything (Everyone?) Can Make a Monster — the perception of monstrosity is personal and individual, even though we can agree on monstrosity as a collective.
Started some sketches to riff on the ideas above, with metal as raw material, and reflecting on the metal shop demos from Jeff. I like the variety of marks left by different grinders on sheet metal, and the pliability of thin metal flashing for curved shapes. Also watched videos from Jean Tinguely which led me to musing on a simple machine to animate some part of our monster… make fan blades from the flashing, mount on a pole set in a base in which it can rotate, and a simple strap and spring arrangement to collect and disperse tension from turning the blades (how does that happen? person blows on them, or waves a fan, or just grabs and turns them…). all of which makes something raise and lower, or open and close, or wave back and forth. Probably a lot harder than it sounds…
May 27: In-Studio ponderings… spent much of the class on the Everything Can Be Anything project, but also absorbing what others were doing around me on their monster parts. A couple of hours before I left, I looked at the (so-far) unused green wreath ring from the other project that was sitting on the table, prongs-down, and realized it reminded me of a spider or a beetle.
I placed the aluminum flashing circle on top for a shell, and did some bending and shaping of the flexible wire legs until it began to resemble a creature rearing up a bit. Imagined adding extended legs and/or pincers, a head and a tail. Chatted with Jeff about how to further modify / fasten /stabilize pieces, and came up with the idea of a thin plate-steel shell instead of aluminum – harder to shape, but possible, and it would allow me to weld legs to body… before leaving that day, I used the wire-brush grinder to clean up a suitably-sized piece – will explore cutting out and shaping next week. Meanwhile, here’s what SpiderBeetle looks like, to date…
SpiderBeetleCrab got a body of sheet metal today… see below… after last week’s grinding to clean the surface, today I used the plasma cutter to cut out a circle (actually, two, in case of grievous errors). Then moved on to shape a curve that was convex from side to side, but concave leading up to the head… for this used a welding torch to heat sections then a ball peen hammer over two different metal forms. Finally, used the bench and angle grinders to clean up the edges, get rid of burrs, and polish the surface.
Went on to attach to the bug’s body to the wreath form, then to weave flashing and shape wires into legs, antennae, tail. My goal is to keep the component parts obvious, not slick or seamless, making it evident this creature was assembled, not born.
Next steps… percolate for a few days on whether to more obviously delineate a head, or eyes, or both. Might mount eyes in the ends of the antennae. Thinking about how to mount the SpiderBeetleCrab on the wall…
Mounting / Finishing / Assembling: will bring the monster as above (variation 2) to our collective installation on April 10th. Need to see the class work all together to understand how he fits in — maybe crawling on top of something else, facing off against another, advancing toward the viewer, time will tell…
Installation — April 26 — Our collective monster is a Chamber of Curiosities, see below
