My goal with Zion was to really emphasize interaction
between the piece and viewer by creating spaces that must be investigated
closer, encouraging viewers to look around in all angles to get the full
experience. This isn’t dissimilar to my childhood
trip through the western United States’ desert landscape, my inspiration, where
when we drove past I kept my head focused on the structures for as long as
possible to soak in the full magnificence.
However, the US’s desert isn’t exactly accessible to everyone, so I look
at Zion as bringing a small fraction of my childhood experience to the
viewer and hope they feel the same.
I began with sketching out ideas guided by the examples that
showed what the materials are capable of.
Two things stuck out to me, the first being that many hard edges would
be challenging to make look neat and the second being that the layering the
foam with plaster application looks like rocks.
This led to my inspiration of the most incredible rock structures remember
seeing as a child: Monument Valley, Arizona and Arches National Park,
Utah. With those in mind, I drew up a
holey rock structure that rose vertically, and for visual interest I made it
asymmetrical with the bottom being narrower than the top.
Using a paper template to get accurate shapes each time, I
traced my design onto the foam panels across the whole width. Upon cutting the first shape, I noted that
the reverse side lined up nicely with the original shape, thickening the
structure and creating more interesting holes.
I stacked the final pieces I noted the cool depth of the holes was
undermined by the flat exterior surface.
Following the trend of using excess foam from my piece, I took the
scraps from the holes I cut and attached them to the outside for more interest (with
the bonus additional cohesion between the holes and the bumps repeating shapes).
Once the piece was glued, I cut away at the edges to smooth
the whole piece down. Most of the arches
and towers I was inspired by have been worn down by centuries of weather to be
fairly smooth, though not completely lacking texture, which was a balance I had
to keep in mind. Finally, I painted the
piece a terra-cotta-esque color to harken back to the colors of the
desert. I originally thought I would
exaggerate the depth with darker acrylic paint in the holes, but I found the
natural shadows cast by the piece did that job for me. I also found by getting closer with the spray
paint I could get darker spots, which added the variation I was looking for. In the end, Zion looked more like my
inspiration and the vision in my head than I could ever hope for!
FINAL PHOTOS
