Grace Langdon Art : Final Advanced Sculpture Project

Bittersweet!

I just finished my final project for advanced sculpture.

I am lucky enough to have a professor that is letting me skip out on the last week of class

so I can get married.

I'm not really skipping out, I just had to work double time to catch up.

Luckily this project was one that worked well with others :)

This project is pretty similar concept wise to the last one.

Here is my artist statement:

"This piece goes hand in hand with my last project referencing stability. My exploration of stability and instability has lead me to many different explorations in materials and artists. Finding inspiration from Urs Fischers untitled work from 2009 where he cast a piano and piano bench in latex really peaked my interest in latex as a material. Knowing that I can almost completely imitate an object with latex really went well with my recent interest in assumptions. Using this material to cast a common object that we easily understand but taking away the rigid structure unearthed many questions. Leaving the viewer questioning if this limp form can really pass as a chair and support their body weight. By playing with assumptions I have created 2 pieces that work together. This one begging the question because of its unstable material yet it is actually more stable than the previous work, which is questioned because of what you cannot see. "

So, here is the process.

I started about a week and a half ago.

I decided I wanted to use an old chair that my parents are letting Reed and I barrow for our living room furniture. I'm pretty sure its outdoor/porch furniture from the '70s.

So I ordered casting latex and prepped the chair to be painted!

First I took the covers off the cushions and recovered them in plastic so not to ruin them.

I then prepped the wooden frame with a clear spray paint to protect it from the latex.

Finally I started the first layer of latex!

The latex paints on like normal but dries rubbery.

It is basically the same thing as a latex medical glove, just thicker!

Here is the latex, ordered from The Engineer Guy.

(They are awesome by the way!)

And the chair with about 3 or 4 layers on it.

Finally after about 6 or 7 layers the latex was thick enough to pull off!

Todd came in to help me since I had never worked with this before.

Basically you just stretch it over the chair and cover it in baby powder as you go

so it doesn't stick to its self.

The photo on the right is what it looks like once it was pulled completely off!

Weird right?!

Then, I hung it on another chair in the studio so I could see the form and start sewing it back together.

(We had to cut it in a few places to get the arms off).

The image on the left is right side out. Very lumpy and grotesque.

The image on the right is smoother, and shows all the details from the original chair!

I worked in the studio for an entire weekend. Literally from about 11 am to 11 pm Friday, Saturday and half the day sunday. I was gettin real tired of latex. But luckily I had a great friend bring me breakfast and come keep me company. Who knew she was also good at carpentry!

She helped me TONS with building the armature that would help hold the latex up to show off the chair shape!

Finally it was finished! After many bloody fingers from sewing and a few tears.

Critique was AAHHHMAZING :) Everyone really was so confused about how they could sit in it and if they even wanted to try it out. Luckily they did and they also gave me so many awesome suggestions on how to improve it and even how to make a new project based off of this one.