studio practice

 Fragile glass piece   

-Development on from soft sculptures.

-Development on from Sound experiment. Using glass inside the piece?  wine bottle inside?

-Video piece smashing the piece, focusing on the sound. 

I made this piece using the same process as the last few soft sculptures. The inspiration for this piece coming from the signs seen on cardboard boxes, the broken glass fragile icon. Making this piece I knew I wanted to use this "handle with care" icon but wasn't sure on the actual form of the sculpture. As this icon tends to be a small warning sign on things like parcels and commercial product packaging there was no literal sign to transfer to calico I had to be slightly more creative in conveying this. When thinking about the imagery of the broken glass and the fragile meaning the first thing that popped into my brain was the cartoon heart shape. This idea of the teenage/young female, adorning her diary with cartoon hearts and a love struck attitude. This is particularly seen and reinforced in the media in teen dramas like Euphoria, skins and sex education. 

I made this piece in the same way as previous; Two heart panels sewn together with two straps to make the iconic bow. Decorating the front panel with with layered felt hearts and lacey frills to add a heighten sense of femininity. I used this image of the shattered glass and decided to mirror the shattering on the felt hearts to further back this meaning of the fragile heart. I decided the text wasn't needed for this piece, the "FRAGILE" text made it just look a little too busy and my point could be seen well enough without it. I sewed the panels together but this time I didn't fill it with the soft stuffing, leaving it open for later. 

This piece is a development on from my soft sculptures, this piece will be filled with a full wine bottle that will be smashed to create a video. The video changes the piece to be less of a sculpture and more of a prop where the video becomes the thing instead of the heart. This piece is also developing on from my earlier sound experiment. The glass however may change it from something quite light and humorous feel to something more raw, dramatic and dangerous. I do think it could still have quite silly slap stick feel to it with the hitting of the pretty frilly heart with a baseball bat, almost pinata style.

 I'm going to film the video in the studio, I might feel more comfortable at home but ill have help with shooting it in the studio and it will most likely look more aesthetically pleasing. I have questioned and discussed the the safety around this but we've ultimately decided as long as I think sensibly about this, it will be fine as the broken glass should be relatively confined inside the fabric.