If I were an Assemblage...- My Final Work: Creation and Evaluation

My own Assemblage: the Effect and Evaluation

So I finally finished the task, which means I created my own assemblage that was supposed to tell a lot about myself. I know I had sketched a draft project, but it was not my aim to repeat all the steps again. I sort of sticked to the plan, but some elements turned out to be hard to use in practice. This is the reason why my final work is only a little bit similar to the project. In general, it shows pretty much the same: these are the details that differ.

Well, I know it looks slightly messy, but it was supposed to be an illustration of my personality, so I don't feel to guilty... Let me just explain what the separate elements are to show, what they previously were to be and why they were changed.

So firstly, here we have the fragment of a girl's face. Initially I wanted her to be a hippie, with lennon-like glasses, but after I painted her extra long and thick eyelashes I realised that they won't correspond with glasses too well. The girl represents a classical canon of beauty, which also serves a specific purpose: it contradicts the suspicion that it is my portrait. The assemblage could not show me directly as a person, so this is just a random lady. Another element was her hair which at first had to turn into spaghetti, rainbow and a rope, but I wonder how I expected it to fit on a piece of paper and look good at the same time. This was an impossible task, which is why I simply decorated her head with multiple floral elements. I also sticked a branch with leaves that fell off a plant that grows in my room and it took up quite a lot of space. The flowers I used are either artificial ones (the orchid), material roses or (a more ecological option) petals made out of colourful plastic bags.

 In the right bottom corner, there were supposed to be some people gathered under an umbrella (it is made of soft, furry, giraffe-like material). My initial idea was to make them all identical, but later on I decided to put there a few influential figures that I somehow admire for their creation. There we have Freddie Mercury, Allen Ginsberg, Syd Barrett, Vincent van Gogh, Woody Allen and Paul McCartney. None of them is a coincidence of course. Next to them there is an anchor on a rope, which belongs to the...

... Yellow Submarine of course! It is a symbol of my love for the Beatles and psychedelic arts as well. The submarine sails across plastic bags ocean and splashes colourful rain on the umbrella below. A toy duck, creeping behind the ship not only corresponds colouristically with the picture, but also reminds me of one of my first toys. The last part I want to talk about is the unusual cloud on the left. The brain cloud is a famous work of an American conceptual artist John Badessari, whom I truly admire for his creativity. Using this element I also wanted to separate the sea from the sky on my picture.

Generally speaking, I am quite satisfied about what I've done, however I regret not using some of my initial ideas, especially the one with a jelly rainbow. Unfortunately, I would have to change the picture's format to add all the things I consider really awesome. As I mentioned before, I am not very proud of the fact that my work is so messy, especially that I already took some actions to make it less overloaded. Yet I think this is also the point that I unconsciously made: I am totally like that and since this assemblage was to be an illustration of myself, well, shame on me.

If I Were an Assemblage... Project & Reasons

THE NEW TASK

So during our previous lessons we analysed some famous assemblage works and as we could assume, it was a preparation for our new task. This time, we are supposed to create an assemblage by ourselves! What is more this work is to illustrate us: our personalities, interests, characteristic features. 

PREPARATION AND INVESTIGATING MY OWN SELF...

Well, such works always trigger an in-depth overview of all the innermost traits and result in drawing appalling conclusions. Also, here comes the dilemma what to reveal, what to save for ourselves and what is actually worth presenting (what can be shown in an attractive way and what seems to be interesting for others). After a brainstorm I made a few decisions. I wrote down all the things I love, things that are visible for others, things that can symbolise my features and the ones that generally make me. When I got them all, well, to be honest I just took a pencil and started drawing, randomly, without paying too much attention to whether it makes sense or not. To my surprise, by trying to put as many elements together, I managed to create a comprehensive picture. I mean, no, it is not the prettiest thing out there, but it links all the things together and really means something to me. Hopefully, not only to me.

THE VERY PROJECT

Here is what the result looks like, however I know it is nor very legible in such a form, so I will describe all the separate parts later...

THE HIPPIE, FRUIT AND FLOWERS

So everyone who knows me knows that I love 1960s in every aspect. everyone who has ever seen me knows it has an expression in the amount of colour and floral designs I wear. The personality assemblage would not be complete without mentioning it. In fact, it could not be mine. The hippie girl does not have to be me, thus she is not similar at all (drawing myself would be too obvious, wouldn't it?). The more floral and trashy her head, the better, that is why I want to stick fake flowers there. Not the cemetery ones of course!!! I will print out the fruit peel designs. Using real hair for her fringe would be disgusting in my opinion, so I would rather use some kind of tassels, shoe laces or (I came up with that just a moment ago) broken crayons. The John Lennon glasses are supposed to emphasise that lady's belonging to the hippie subculture. I also want her eyelashes to stand out somehow, so I may use something (maybe fake lashes?) there. The woman's hair however, fill up almost the whole rest of the picture, so they are similar to mine. There's a lot of them and they're long and kind of wavy. 

 THE HORIZON

So this is the top of the picture. Firstly, the girl's hair turn into a rainbow (which I am planning to make up of rainbow-jellies), then they become a wave (that bottle evokes wrong associations, I would rather remove it), through which the Beatles' (best band of all times) Yellow Submarine appears. Another artificial flower here, a SUNflower acts as a sun. Moreover there is a braid among the bunch of hair. It will be made of some kind of rope and have a continuation below the submarine. As we can see, the yellow ship makes the water splash....

RAIN IN ITALY?

So the water splashes on a group of identical people, with identical faces (how about my own?), they are all holding identical umbrellas, trying to save themselves from the rain. The palm next to them will have real coconuts cut out of a big one. Its appearance is an allusion to the fact each time I go somewhere for holidays, no matter how hot that place usually is, it rains. Moreover, I love rain so much! The spaghetti has a meaning as well, Italy is my second home and the fact that the noodles go 'straight to the girl's head' say that this country is always on my mind. I will use real spaghetti as hair here. The last detail I would like to talk about is the anchor, which I mentioned before. It is attached to the rope-braid.

SCARECROW MASK: EFFECT&EVALUATION

THE SCARECROW'S READY

First of all, I wanted to apologise for not bringing my mask to school. Here's the reason: It consists of (as you can see from the photos) many fragile objects (straw, needles) and a heavy earthenware pot. This means transporting it would be a dangerous adventure and it could result in a damage of my mask. Especially since I travel by bus. That's why I decided to take pictures of a ready mask and evaluate it here.

Just to let you know, the nose is made of a christmas tree branch, while my scarecrow's hair is pure straw...

So here is the front of my mask...

And here is my scarecrow, side view...

EVALUATION

What I am quite happy about is that the outcome isn't too different from what I planned in my projects. That really restores my faith in my own consistency. The mouth is painted and the pot suits quite well. But it's probably the end of the advantages' list. Here are the problem I met on my creation journey:

1) THE NOSE

I must admit I even prepared a perfect stick for the nose. It was supposed to be wooden and kind of 'doubled' (two pieces sticking out of one). Still, when I tried it out I realised it looks really poor and ineffective. I decided to search for a better substitute and the only thing I could find at home was a branch from our christmas tree. Thank god I managed to cut the necessary part off before my parents threw it away

2) GLUING

So I thought the glue I have (the WIKOL type) is perfect for sticking the scarecrow's hair. Unfortunately the straw refused to cooperate and I found it impossible to glue it. I found sticky tape helpful although the effect was not too spectacular.

3) STRUCTURE

Here is my huge inadvertence, because I guess the mask would be a bit better, tougher and better-looking if a few more layers of paper was added. 

In general I am quite satisfied about the effect though there is still some room for improvement. Surely I won't make the same mistakes next time, but I wonder when will I have a chance to create a mask again...

Assemblage, Kantor and his works

To start with, I would like to introduce to you a very interesting form of art. Its name is 'assemblage' and comes from french, meaning a gathering, set. Actually, in arts it means something sort of alike. Assemblage is usually a three or two dimensional picture, consisting of different materials, textures and objects. The technique has its origins in the beginning of the 20th and developed along with such movements like dadaism and other forms of collage. However the form seems simple or even primitive (and in fact it had to face a lot of criticism, because the more conservative individuals considered a bunch of random objects to be far from arts), many artists got really interested in it and even experimented with assemblage. These were for example Picasso, Dubuffet and Duchamp.
The artists that influenced this form of arts the most (or rather were influenced by it) are:

• Arman
• Hans Bellmer 
• Wallace Berman 
• André Breton 
• John Chamberlain 
• Greg Colson 
• Joseph Cornell 
• Rosalie Gascoigne 
• Raoul Hausmann 
• Romauald Hazoumé 
• Robert H. Hudson 
• Edward Kienholz 
• Jean-Jacques Lebel 
• Ondrej Mares 
• Louise Nevelson 
• Minoru Ohira 
• Meret Oppenheim 
• Robert Rauschenberg
• Fred H. Roster 
• Daniel Spoerri
• Pansy Stockton
• Vladimir Tatlin
• Wolf Vostell
• Jeff Wassmann
• H. C. Westermann 

Ossario's 'Forearmed'

And now, moving on to a more specific area...

Ever heard of Tadeusz Kantor? In the context of assemblage, you definitely should! It was a polish painter, director and scenographer from the southern region of the country. He is well known for his works of art and also being a professor in the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow and the founder of an Independent Theatre under the nazi occupation, during the II World War. 

The one on the left is an example of an assemblage made by him in 1968. Its polish title is 'ambalaże, przedmioty, postacie' and it presents a set of (at the first glance) random elements. There is a woman in the right bottom corner, a box at the very bottom, a fragment of a face and a red umbrella, followed by a yellow square. The whole picture remains pale when it comes to colours, however a small piece of the background is blue. Still, when you look a bit closer it starts to seem more legitimate. Maybe the umbrella is useless, since the shy is blue?

sorces: wikipedia.org

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My Own Mask's Projects

We were challenged...

Finally, after all the lessons on masks, inspiration and cultures we got the precise task! That will be creating our own mask, inspired by any culture, or an aspect of culture if we are particularly stubborn. I probably will be, but I'll come to that later. During the last lesson, we were to draw some sketches, projects or any ideas that came to our minds, then choose one, mix them all and generally decide what the mask is going to look like.

What inspired me?

Before we were told exactly what to do, I had a brief idea about what my mask is going to represent. And nothing in the world can change my mind- I want to make a scarecrow's mask. A quite creepy and psychedelic one. Talking about inspiration, well, there are a few things that combined together made me sure this idea makes sense. The first one, was my visit to the countryside, where a big part of my family lives. The second, was the time of year. Autumn there looks really amazing, and probably the most beautiful view was an empty field with just one scarecrow standing in the middle of it. This reminded me of an early-Pink Floyd recording from their first psychedelic album. The song is peaceful and not really controversial, but I'm into such music this season... I guess it gives a perfect impression of what I saw in the countryside. The combination of those factors, plus the upcoming halloween made it clear: a creepy scarecrow's mask is exactly what I want to do! Once again, to make sure aspects of culture were my inspiration I'll write them down:
-the country's culture, so sort of folklore
-simple psychedelic music, so late 1960s culture
-autumn's mood, especially the traditions present in polish culture since the slavic customs connected with recalling ghosts (so the dark, scary aspect of november culture)

My scarecrows!

Here are the lads I managed to draw during the lesson... To be honest, they all have different features and one of them will win my inner competition. None of them will avoid judgement! So here we go... The thing they all need to have in common are definitely round eyes and a nose made out of a stick.I guess the straw is also crucial for a real scarecrow, but not suitable for each type of masks down below.

The gardener

Here we have our first candidate- a very classical one. Hair made of straw, mouth out of buttons and a typical victorian upper-class holiday hat. Very handsome, but I'm not convinced when it comes to the mouth. I came up with a bit more creepy idea....

The potter

An alternative to the guy above is this one. Is it noticeably different? Well,

first of all the vintage, oldschool pot on the top of his head gives him a more DIY look which I honestly prefer. The second thing I like about him is the mouth- way more psychedelic smile (now I realised it's Tim Burton-inspired- remember the mouths in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'?). Still, the straw looks attractive on him. The hair along with the nose are the features I'm undoubtedly going to leave.

The pumpkin head

Is a regular scarecrow's face too mainstream? I'm not sure yet, but just in case it was, I've drawn a pumpkin (wasn't there a horror film about a scarecrow with such a vegetarian  head?). I've even done a dressed-up-as-a-scarecrow version of

this guy. Still, I found out the pumpkin has a lot of disadvantages when it comes to the creation of the mask: it will be really inconvenient to stick layers, while other people will be easily making smooth masks at the same time.It also looks too chaotic for me, even on the picture, so I'm scared to think how it would come out in practice... So yes, the pumpkin head is an original idea, but I might be either too lazy or too little talented to make it stunning.

The verdict

I guess I will stay with the regularly-faced scarecrow, but the one with a drawn "sewed" mouth and a pot at the top of his head. He really appeals to me, has this creepy vibe, is much easier to make and requires using only materials that are possible to come by. I made a decision, maybe quickly but when it comes to arts I rather listen to my heart than consider advantages and disadvantages for hours...
Look out crows! Here we come!

The Kashubian Culture and a Few Words on What Inspiration Is...

What Is Inspiration?

This is the question everyone should be able to answer, no matter if he considers himself an artist or not. Why? Because in everything we do, we should have the ability to distinguish between inspiration and plagiarism. Otherwise we might find ourselves really troubled. First of all, inspiration has nothing to do with a copy. It is this gentle force that pushes you to co concentrate on something particular or even, yes, borrow elements of something, but just to put it in your own arrangement. As simple as that. Inspiration is just a brief idea, with which you can do whatever you like. The number of sources of inspiration is a great proof. Some may be inspired by elements of nature, music, artistic currents or cultures. And it doesn't mean they take it all and repeat. They may scoop a bit of what they consider the best and mix it with something completely different or create a totally new thing by improving the old one.

The Kashubian Mask

To incorporate the topic of inspiration to the previously discussed masks, we had a task to find inspiration for creating one. Not any inspiration of course! We were to find something in the Kashubian culture, so an area that should be well-known. Among many ideas, there was one that really didn't want to leave me in peace. I could have done lots of different masks, but I had my mind set on an old Kashubian teapot my granny owned. It was all covered in floral designs, seemed our household symbol of this beautiful region. This made me wonder... Why not turn it into a mask? Just on paper, so that it doesn't do a lot of damage? Here is the result:

2 DIFFERENT MASKS- comparison

Comparable? 

Not really. But there is one thing both of these creepy masks have in common. I probably wouldn't hang any of these in my bedroom. Just the psychedelic facial impression of both wouldn't make me feel safe at night.

Here we have a venetian-inspired, so called 'jolly mask' undoubtedly showing a fake smile of a joker on the left and a western african tribal mask on the right. After analysing those two for a couple of minutes I haven't spotted any significant similarities. Is it just me? The differences on the other hand are pretty obvious. Even the facial expressions vary a lot. While the joker smiles with wickedness, the african lad seems to say 'I'm disappointed'. And I can see this disappointment in his round empty eyes. Concerning the material, my first impression was that the tribal mask had to be a nuisance for the one wearing it- looks so heavy and is actually huge, while the minute joker, probably made of something super-light just glimpses in triumph. I guess the african mask is clay-made, maybe with some wooden elements (though it seems too smooth for wood). And just have  a look at the decorations! The venetian guy must have been painted really carefully- every line is perfectly exact, all the little bells evenly stitched and the lips... well everyone who tried to use a lipstick at least once knows that these lips are a masterpiece! Yet the african cousin of this venetian beauty also has some decorations, simply some more eco-friendly ones: the shells and straw do the job as well! The last thing that puts those masks in different categories is obviously their origin and usage. Still, both might be considered a decorative element by the more thick-skinned people than myself...