Assignment #1 - 'Alumination' Artist #1

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Rodney Love is a Sydney based artist whose work is mostly based in textiles. He uses unusual and everyday materials such as aluminium foil, glad wrap, human hair and pins to create both textile and sculptural works.

When presented with this alfoil assignment I immediately began to think of aluminium foil in terms of strength. We inherently assume that all metals are hard, tough and strong yet aluminium foil is a thin metal material that is not load bearing and breaks easily. I thought that for this installation assignment I could challenge the notion of strength and use aluminium foil, a weak material, to create something strong and durable, such as a bag or chain.

This work has no title and was never exhibited. It was just an experiment with the foil "yarn." I guess it's a kind of basket, if you stretch that definition a bit.( Quote from artists blog)

Transforming the flat aluminium surface into workable and a more durable yarn appealed to my original concepts for this assignment. The design and nature of the form has a sense of fragility in execution as there is an abundance of negative space in between the woven aluminium yarn. This is added to by the nature of the medium as we are aware of aluminium foils fragility as it is an everyday and commonly used material.
While I would perhaps focus on creating a stronger and more practically durable bag/ basket to juxtapose the frailty of aluminium foil, this has reminded me of the importance of aesthetic beauty. The colour and metallic quality of the foil and top peaks of the basket design add an ethereal and light quality which I hope to potentially explore in this assignment.

This post just has two random sculptures made from aluminium foil twisted into rope, I guess you could say, and then manipulated into larger forms. the first work is called Silver Circus, if I recall. There's a small wire box inside the mass of foil which the foil ropes snake in and out of. ( Quote from artists blog)
I've included this second aluminium work done by Rodney Love as I think is shows the diversity of the alfoil medium. The previous work was ethereal, light and visually calming while this work is chaotic and frenzied in execution. Again I like how he has created a yarn, or a rope like form out of a flat and thin surface.


This first one shows a couple of crocheted hair works. They're made from the hair yarn that I had made for my hair weavings. (Quote from artists blog)
 

I am very interested in textile and craft techniques such as crotchet and quilling. As such I find these works very interesting. The use of human hair is somewhat sinister and as I have visited Auschwitz, one of the main concentration camps from WWII, these works seem deeply reminiscent of the Holocaust. After more research I found that this is one of the messages behind Love's human hair works. 

"I don't want to write too much about the hair works yet as they're still percolating in my unconscious, but I'm thinking of links with the Holocaust (a recurring theme with my hair works) and the cloth that was made which included human hair from the concentration camps. The tentative title I've been using is The Devil's Cloth which refers to striped cloth." (Quote from artists blog)

These last two images were from the work entitled 'Six degrees of separation' where the hair of six individuals who were socially linked was woven together. I like this concept as it takes a social relationship and creates a visual interpretation of it while simultaneously suggesting a potential sinister or dark underlying theme. Hair is an interesting medium as it is one of the only parts of the human body that can be removed without causing injury.

In relation to this project, I may use a weaving or basketry technique to make a strong vessel. Love has used weaving techniques in his works using cling wrap as his material.



I find these works very appealing as the nature of glad or cling wrap is to stick to surfaces, thus as a viewer we have the knowledge of how weaving this material would cause difficulty and require skill.

Love's work appeals to me as he combines traditional textile methods such as loom work, weaving and crotchet with modern and utilitarian materials that one would not consider precious. His works are visually detailed and interesting whilst also being challenging as they make us question our preconceived notions of the purpose and use of everyday objects and materials.