Names: Tan Yee Lin and Lee Jiaying Class: Sec 4 GAP Materials used: wood, twigs, twine, aluminium foil, soil, newspaper, grass, cardboard, clay, masking tape, white glue, uhu glue, nails
This work gives a futuristic prediction of the future that we may or may not live in. It is separated into two levels; the lower level a representation of the present strife and struggle between long-term environmental benefits and short term economic gain; the upper level the artists' perspective of where the wealth truly lies - in Nature. Only the brave and visionary can break away from greed and temptation, climb the ladder admist much uncertainty and fear to discover the true treasure our environment embraces How did you come up with the idea for this artwork? How much help did the teacher give? Mrs Teo, our art teacher, suggested that it would have been more meaningful for us to link it to an environmental theme; for us to present not just a negative society, but to also contrast it with a positive point of view, so we adapted our piece accordingly. What are the some of the difficulties faced when making the work? How did you come to a consensus on any decisions? What have you learnt from this extended art project? Did you make any sketches, preparatory studies before commencing on this? If we had more resources, we would make minor changes to our sculpture; improving in general the quality of our work. We would make our sculpture lighter, sturdier, and more portable.
Fortes fortuna iuva
(Fortune favours the brave)
At first we meant our sculpture to be a representation of a disturbingly warped modern and futuristic society. We were intrigued by the idea of human greed and the "survival of the fittest", and wanted to explore the extent to which humans can harm one another just so that they can reach the top.
The difficulties we faced were mostly technical, not conceptual. This was because our views of the issue at hand echoed one another'; what we lacked was the experience in handling materials such as wood and glue. We had difficulty building the fence at the top of the sculpture as well as the red ladder, because we were unfamiliar in handling uhu glue and white glue, and could not find many twigs of the right thickness.
Whenever we had any disagreements, we would write out our ideas and attempt to convince each other of our stand. Balancing out the pros and cons, we would then attempt to reach a compromise. However, this was not much of a problem because we worked in pairs and generally had similar views of the issue at hand.
We have realized the necessity of art revolving round the environmental theme - the role of art in conveying the message of conservation is extremely essential. Apart from politicians and environmentalists advocating the importance of our environment, artists also have to play a part in influencing and warning the masses of the implications of the destruction of Nature.
We did make some drawings before hand, but they were rough sketches of our sculpture with measurements. Colour schemes were improvised as we went along.