Chris Sickels: The Big Small World of Red Nose Studio Exhibition Review

The work Chris Sickels produces is very impressive and whimsical. The stories he tells in his work is very funny and beautiful. The show that he presented at  The Art Institute of Boston had a great mixture of sculptures, drawings, sketches and video. He is a very well celebrated artist being the creator and director of the award-winning Red Nose Studio. Red Nose Studio's illustrations appear in advertising, magazines, books, newspapers, packaging, character development and animation.

This exhibition did not do justice to his work. He is artist that is very inventive and fun, this exhibition did not showcase this. The exhibition was very traditional and not well organized. There was no literature to describe his work witch left the viewer to wonder. the Exhibition was very simple it didn't give a mood to the work which would have made the work so much more impressive if it did. the set up wasn't clean, there were two extremely large speakers in the corner which was, you can say the least an eye sore. They didn't even try to hid the wires coming from them, or the TV. There was a separation in the show dividing up the work and putting it in the other room was confusing.

This exhibition took away from Sickels work, the presentation of the work seem to be put together quick and under thought about. this Exhibition could have been great but it just feels like a missed the mark fr me. the work has such a glorious theme that could have been mirrored with in the Exhibition but they seem to ignore it.

FINAL PIECES

Fragile Strength 

Fragile strength is a sculpture made from leaves in the form of a whirlpool. This piece plays with contrast, life vs. death and wet vs. dry. The life is created from the subject of water in a whirlpool vs. the dead leaves. The mix of concepts emerged in the collecting of materials and the construction of the piece.  These ideas play a lot in the contrast of the piece. The viewer is permitted to find the contrast and question its motives.   

             Fragile strength is a whirlpool that plays with contrast; this piece uses its materials to continue with the concept. This piece has a wire body armature. The leaves are covered with gel medium to add support and prevent cracking.  This piece depicts the water phenomena of a whirlpool using a natural land material, leaves. Suspending this piece allows the viewer to feel as if they are under water experiencing the water twirl in front of them. The viewer is also able to see a little bit above the water so they can surface of the water  and how the whirlpool starts to create itself.

            

  

Static Wave

Static wave is an idea that goes along with structured flow. This piece is made from found branches to convey the idea of stiffness and strength that natural wood gives. The branches give the contour of a iconic wave to show the contrast of flow and structure. The collection of branches were constructed in a wave, and the wood has unity from color. Varies in shape, size, movement, and texture as the ocean has a since of unity I wanted that to be clear in this piece. The piece being hung to give a hint of movement that connects it back to the flow in the ocean. The wave is also hung to give the feel of weightlessness, much like one feels while in the waves. 

Water Fall Made From Dirt

My theme of natural land materials creating water phenomena. I believe its clear how my pieces fit into the theme with making a wave out branches and a whirlpool of of leaves. I do think my theme is very obvious, where the theme is the what (what its depicted) and how (how its made). I think I have been successful in conveying this theme i think what has more difficult is to have the craft to make the piece understandable. The risks I have taken has been my use of materials, leaves and branches are not materials i know much about so i often have to infer how the material will move and work and I just have to learn as i go.  These risks just make me want to take more risks, using these different materials pushes me to think whats next. Whats next for me to explore in my next piece? What is something I've never seen used? I not only want to use a material i never used  before but i also want to have very little knowledge of how it works, so i use them in ways I've every seen by any other artist.

fragile strength final and next steps .

I believe that my second piece is where i want it to be. After the critique I've been able to refine my piece to a point that I'm very comfortable with. I really like my final piece it is what i had imagined while  planning the piece. I hope to create a 3rd piece in my series, I want to create a waterfall of dirt. i want to continue with the theme of natural land materials creating water phenomena.  I don't think this piece will take long to build, its just as the other pieces in my series its simple but it takes perfection to pull off. 

fragile strength research

i've looked into many artist using leaves. Andy Goldsworthy uses leaves in a lot of his pieces however he doesn't try to preserve them as i am doing.  Seeing the artist in new york that uses photo copied leaves in her piece, connected to mine. Although she does not use real leaves nor does she use the leaves to mold/create a sculpture. its hard to find an artist to use as inspiration because there isnt any artist that uses leaves in the way im using them. i dont think the way im using my material is inventive but i am just yet to find an artist doing what i am doing. researching leaves it made me think of color, i think i want to explore color in this piece. many artist are painting on leaves and i think it could push my piece further with using paint. i want to use cool colors to push the idea of a whirl pool, and the paint can further illustrate the form . 


http://www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html

fragile strength

I got a lot of suggestions about what i should use for my next material, but leaves came up more often then not. So i went with the masses i figured that it was a good time time to experiment with with more natural materials. leaves a very flexible when alive but when its completely dead and dry  it becomes very fragile so it has been a difficult material to work with. i have done a LOT of experimenting this week and i found that painting medium gloss over the leaves it makes it much stronger and a lot more flexible. i have also found that leaves cant stand by themselves, so i was forced to use chicken wire to have more strength in the piece.  Im learning as i go and the piece is changing as i go so i dont what it will become but im excited. 

static wave.

While creating this piece i did a lot of research and had a lot of prior knowledge on my favorite artist Maya Lin.  She works with many materials in her sculptures and most being natural materials. looking at her many pieces using wood and stacking it, and the different treatments she uses to create clean unity with materials that are all shaped very differently. researching her work was the reason i came to the decision to stain all my wood one color so the piece would have unity and the material didn't distract from the meaning of the piece. 

http://www.mayalin.com/

Another artist i researched was Reuben Margolin. He's a kinetic sculptor that works with wood. His pieces flow and move and do things people don't expect a very stiff material like wood would do. I chose to have my piece hung with fishing wire and each branch to be hung with fishing wire so my piece would move. if the piece was completely still i don't think it would give the feel of a wave the way it does now. the small movement it makes as someone brushes past it gives it that bit of realism that i really like. with the movement it makes the wave seem like its part of a slow current and makes it feel more alive.  
http://www.vimeo.com/5634600