Open Studios: Sculpture
Sculpture I & II
Instructor: Dana Hemenway
This class is an introductory Sculpture course for students who wanted to gain the basic skills and understanding of materiality, form, concept, and contemporary art. Students discovered new ways to work with sculptural techniques and processes, engaged in group critiques, attended artist talks, and discussed readings on contemporary art. This class challenged expectations of what defines “sculpture”. Sculpture today is a wide-ranging field and there is no one medium or material that adequately encompasses it, sculpture is about material processes, ideas, and aesthetics (or anti-aesthetics). In this quarter of virtual learning, we explored how documentation, time-based, and virtual practices intersect with three-dimensional form.
Fabricated To Be Photographed (3D Printer Project)
For our first project of the quarter, students started working with their 3D printers (that were offered this year as part of the P3D program). The goal of this assignment was to incorporate 3D printing into a conceptual project that straddles sculpture and photography. The final format for the project was lens based so finding a context for their prints was key. Students were also asked to consider 3D printing critically and conceptually as it relates to contemporary art.
Marsela Porras, severed
Mariela Santelices, Glacier Grey
Noah DeWald, ÄRTIFAKT Vase, white - IKEA
Maxine Stern, 1bd/studio in Los Angeles, spacious & filled with light!
Kaylee Nok, My First Asian Kitchen
Angelina Suh, With the World As We Know It (WTWAWKI)
Amado Orendain Shrestha, Nature Reassembled
Jamie Seney, Virgil Lee Real Fruits, Inc.
Simon Tao, The Silent Piano
Myles Russell Hinton, Untitled
Cardboard Body Extension
In this project students expand the boundaries of the body using constructed cardboard extensions. In this project we asked how can sculpture comment on, build on, and/or absurdify the relationship between the human form and objects? The resulting projects introduce a model of Interdisciplinary art practice that encompasses performance or performative action, photography/video, and the creation of objects.
Mariela Santelices, Medicated
Kaylee Nok, Mama's Necklace
Simon Tao, The RAC 4000
Marsela Porras, Lesbian Hand Extension 3000
Jamie Seney, Six Feet, Please!
Myles Russell Hinton, shoulder girdle
Angelina Suh, What Became of Us
Amado Orendain Shrestha, Camera Obscura
Noah DeWald, Turrelevate
Ashley Bender, Security Blanket
Maxine Stern, Prisms
(un)monument
For our final project, we explored the legacy of the monument in contemporary sculpture, as well as its position and power in public spaces. First, students did research on a local monument they encounter regularly. The research and explorations led to final projects that engaged with the selected monument or some way were inspired by it.
Please explore the map to learn more about each project.
Materials Database (group exercise)
The materials we choose to make sculpture out of make meaning in the work. The options are endless, as a class we explored the limits of possibility by forming a materials database on Instagram. Students worked in groups of 4 and identified themes to explore together. The themes this quarter were: A Four Course Meal, Certified Organic // All Natural, and COVID. Each student posted explorations into 3 materials and how these materials could be used to make sculpture, as well as the meanings these materials could conjure.
Each post was meant to be a quick gestural experiment into how a material could be used in art–enjoy!