alex feb 17th

i had alot of thoughts for my project after we watched the movies together, and i chose to work with themes from both my past project/space and those from the Shawshank Redemption. in my last work, i was most drawn to the way color became a large part of the composition and the forms/direction my pipes and lines took. when i thought about this project based on filim, i had a vision for something keeping words such as Tension/pipes/wires/tunnel v. structured cells and architecture/ energy/movement in my head (just to give you an idea from where i was coming).


ultimately, it seemed that the most effective way to give the impression of tunneling through space was through an installation piece which completely scared the SH&T out of me because im not much of a 3d worker. however, considering the ideas i was working with (am working with) i went right for the little hallway with the sink in studio (sorry guys, i know its a huge pain to get to the sink! but i know you all secretly love to suffer in the name of art anyways...)

i decided to make the viewer feel the tightness of the space that andy feels when he is tunneling out of the prison, as well as communicate the idea of "busting out" (like when he "busts" out of jail? yea? i dunno...). this is not entirely my focus because it seems too explicit and obvious to me, so i married this concept of tunneling and working through space with the imagery from the very orderly prison cells. Then i called to mind the aspects of color and weaving pipes from my last project, and tried to put all of these notions into dialogue with one another. what interested me most about this project was the idea of communicating space as something we work through, and live within. we work around space and space works around us, etc.

So in the nature of "blind tunneling" i just went right to work and blindly tunneled through the hallway, hoping that solutions would arise as i worked. of cours,e i had a vision, but that said, no direct plan or requirements to stick to. i just went at the space, making the walls and everything within all white, planning to add colored cells and bursting wires from those "cells" to give the effect of movement coming from the sink area. i wanted the viewer to feel movement in the space of color and form, to feel energy of color, and tension/thrust in the wire majigs i installed.

however, as usual, i ran into some pretty irritating problems. supplies were short to make everything all white, and i found myself having to buy alot of sheets/ unexpected supplies. that said, i still felt that the matierals i wanted were not going to be possible due to budget and time restraints, and im not sure that the aesthetic of my final piece does justice to the idea of the "tunnel" and architecture as well as i wanted it to. what i mean to say is, im not sure i didn't bite off more than i could chew. the hallway is definitely bigger than i thought and i felt kind of hopeless at a point when i felt that there was no "thrust" or movement in my wires/cells/organic colorful structures, and wanted to cry looking at the big pile of wet, soggy white blobs surrounding me (i.e. paint meets boxes meets toilet paper meets water and glue meets paper...eww).

fortunatey,i worked on it more today and feel alot better about it, because a little lighting and tweaks seemed to provide some answers. though i guess you guys will let me know better on tuesday if this is in fact the case... i posted mid-process pics, but not as far as i have worked today because im saving that for crit!

whoo.