Found Objects

 FOUND OBJECTS

Flower Finds Friend

8 x 10 inches

        Flower Finds Friend combines found objects, re-contextualizing this source material into a new narrative.  The piece depicts an intimate scene of the meeting between two friends, a delicate moment to breathe personality into the mundane objects that the sculpture consists of.

        As an avid hoarder collector of trash found objects, I already had a large bag of things to pull from.  My goal was to not cover the original pieces at all, but purely to twist how they are percieved.  For example, the arms and legs are forks, which are designed for making food easier to eat.  However, in this context the utensils don't have the immediate connection to eating as they are positioned and bend like limbs.  This continues for the whole piece: a hair clip takes on eyes and teeth, a whistle becomes a head with a snoot, a razor becomes a bug-like body.  Unlike the wood sculpture, I wanted all connection points to be fairly obvious to highlight the separate objects, so the entire sculpture is connected with visible wire (no glue, and the only tape used to keep the bug support in place during transit).

    Upon making the initial figure I knew something was missing, and determined that he needed a friend and an environment to push the narrative.  I was inspired by the process of David Bird and his Becorns, creatures made of natural found objects that then interact with the wild environment.  There is always this fleeting moment captured in his photography where the Becorns interact seamlessly with wild animals, and I wanted to capture that energy, granted in a more controlled environment.  I did so by suspending the dragonfly in air and the figure waiting with an extended flower, hoping this would provide that same tension in that the dragonfly could part at any moment.  I felt this reinforced the piece into being more interesting and less of just a compilation of stuff.

        All of these objects I had been close to as they served their original purpose, and re-using them breathes new life and appreciation for what they have done.  Each one carries a story: the decades old hair clip given to me by my mom and used for years until the spring finally broke, green saran wrap once used for home-made Christmas advent calendars, or even the most recent flowers from a friend's finished project who gave away the extras.  The sculptures were assembled with care and consideration to the past stories to create a new one that highlights their significance.  By seeing the objects so carefully selected, the viewer can wonder why that object in particular was chosen and what it's past was before being used for this piece.  When stepping away, I hope that Flower Finds Friend will have viewers reflect on their own objects used in daily life, seeing them with more appreciation and curiosity as to what adventures they could go on.

WORK IN PROGRESS

After realizing I wanted to make a figure out of my objects, I did a very rough mock-up of a humanoid figure with forks.  A bit horrifying, I'll admit, but it gave me inspiration for the fork limbs

Assembled in one sitting, I created the base for the figure.  I wanted it to look as though he has also found these objects himself and assembled his own accessories

Him vibin'

He needed some touch-ups, like to fill out his skirt and something to finish off the top of the head.  I decided on a large bow to continue my color scheme and compliment the skirt

He needed a friend, so I constructed a small companion who's like a dragonfly bunny... thing.  Upon giving it wings I knew it needed to be suspended on the base somehow

The makings of a base (pot color later changed to match the color scheme better).  This base was too small and didn't give a change to really see the details of the figures.  I eventually decided on something less distracting as well

FINAL PHOTOS