Studio Practice - Summative Evaluation

Summative Evaluation 

For my final work, I wanted to work with pattern and real materials as well as storytelling. I feel like I have achieved it, however, with more time I could have made something stronger than I made so that it was more stable and visually more cohesive.

I used bamboo to tell a story, the bamboo that is attached to the bottom of the sink leg, on the floor, suggesting the abandonment of the space. The bamboo part being washed in the sink suggesting someone living there, using what they can find to survive. The use of a garland and wallpaper shows how someone has tried to make the space nicer to live in. I feel like the garland does this more as it looks like someone made it from things they have found, whilst the wallpaper looks like something new. I feel that if I was to have made the wallpaper look old and falling off, it could look like the original wallpaper and that the people would have tried to fix it. Overall, I liked the pattern work more than the rest of the installation. However I did like my use of storytelling, and this is something I would like to expand into the next project. 

At the start of this project I wasn't inspired by our project brief, I found that I didn't have any ideas like I normally do when given a new project, However, after a guest talk with (name) about the history of tattooing, I had a better idea on a route I want to go down. My plan was to explore diverse types of tattooing, but I ended up only looking at traditional Japanese tattoos. If I was to do this again, I would spend more time in researching and look at some other tattoos such as Sailor tattoos. I found that my research in this project was not extensive enough and this may have been a major reason I was struggling with concepts and inspirations. 
During the beginning stages of these projects, I had a lot of small ideas but nothing I felt inspired enough to explore more. I found this to have been a problem in my motivation to create that overall made my work not to the quality I normally work too. I found this to have been an issue throughout the whole project, but a much larger one during the beginning stages. 
Through talking with people around me, I ended up looking at abandoned spaces and wanting to twist them into being somewhere that someone (an outcast?) has made a home, wanting to be playful with my approach. Here I still had a lot of initial ideas I didn't explore or document that well, but I found myself to be drawn towards working with a sink and bamboo. This is most likely due to them being something easier to draw as well as my interest in creating patterns in water and creating work around the natural world. I did have a plan to work with other elements of an abandoned space that I wish I did explore more, but I enjoyed working with the sink a lot. After some of the talks with Julian I chose to focus on using our sink in my work, using it to dress and to display my work.  
While planning some illustrations I wanted to do (didn't end up making due to focusing on other things case of time), I remembered a technique I saw online to make repeating patterns and wanted to try it out. This is where the wallpaper came from. I also wanted to dress the sink; I thought making a garland would work for this. I don't remember where this idea came from, but I think it was a comment someone made while we were talking about our work. I found that after I created the wallpaper and did some prep work with bamboo, I didn't have much motivation left for anything else and this affected the outcome of my work. Despite this I am happy to have created something, showing my idea, and will use this as a learning experience for future projects. 

Some Feedback I got on my project and my own thoughts.  
My patterned wallpaper reminded people of 1950/70 kitchen tiles as well as 1970 plastic tablecloths. They like the bamboo that is growing from the floor and someone of the people understood the refence to how bamboo grows if left unattended. I noticed that during feedback, people were more drawn to the wallpaper, this is a part that has had the most time and effort put into it and something I am the proudest of.  
I found that while talking about my work, I didn't know what to say as I was unprepared for this, other than that I think this was a good way to display my work and doing it digitally would not be as strong. If I was to do this again, I would spend more time on preparation, especially when it comes to talking about the work. I also did not have it finished as the sink was empty – I had to fill it just before it was my turn to talk – and I didn't end up putting the Droste effect photo on the wall, this was meant to be another part of my work.