Tuesday, January 4, 2011

making, breaking

So far so good, though I am now feeling a little touchy.  The plasma cutting on the tablecloth has finished and I have chosen to soft forge the individual elements.  This is serving two purposes.  The first is to stretch the piece to look more like a crotched tablecloth.  The other is to flatten the back as it was going to take way too long to chase the lumps of burnt steel formed by the plasma cutter.  I oscillated between t removing the lumps or leaving them.  It looked quite good with them.  The piece is increasingly fragile because of the forging, even after heating to relax the metal.  This is a good thing as the work is breaking in parts, causing more degeneration.  


I have become interested in Robert Smithson and his ideas on entropy and the simulacrum - the imperfect copy.  In the 'tablecloth' I have been exploring both of these ideas.  Yet, even though I want the tablecloth to fall apart to a certain degree, I don't want it to go all the way.  Here is my fear, and the only way to work.

1 comment:

  1. it's looking fabulous! Here's where I pipe up and say "oh yeah, and mine's coming along good too ;)"
    ...
    .. m

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