Wire faces, masks; toys and art; labels

Earlier

Later

It is quite hard work shaping his copper wire to form an armature, which will be the basis of a mask: the wire ends are sharp and can cut your fingers wickedly. I think these armatures need a bit more tweaking, especially around the moth.

It is also quite hard to work the wire in three dimensions to make a good face shape. I think perhaps using wire netting might have been an easier option.

I find with these craft pieces that often in their earlier stages they are more striking, weirder, and as they progress they become less suggestive and more like mere toys. I intend this mask to be quite realistic. I think the more realistic masks are, the creepier.

What is the difference between a toy and a work of art? I suppose a toy is necessarily restricted in intention, while that of an artwork is diffuse, though its purposes are first of all aesthetic.

I love the interactivity of masks; they cross and confuse the boundaries between toy and artwork, between serious and silly like nothing else I can think of.

*

Regular visitors will see that there are now labels at the bottom of the page, making it much easier and fun to find things on this blog.

Papier-mâché birds; toys and sculpure

Here's a collection of papier mache birds I've been working on over the last few days.

The thing is to find the right degree of anthropomorphism: the right balance between bird and suggested human characteristics for them to be fun.

They need to dry a little before I can work more into them, making their surfaces more even and improving their tails and beaks. Later they will be painted.

***

At what point does a toy become a sculpture? At the point at which it is too precious or serious looking to be played with, I guess.*

Play is regarded with tremendous suspicion in our culture though it lies beneath so many artistic endeavors. I suspect play is regarded with suspicion because it is regarded as the opposite of work, and Western societies are very much in thrall to the Protestant Capitalist ethos, whereby all activities must have a known, profitable end- to the extent that people are encouraged to feel bad about themselves when they aren't working, no matter how unfulfilling the jobs available to them are.

*Alexander Calder is an exception to this. Paul Klee, like Picasso, is playful but you couldn't really play with his works. Perhaps readers have other examples?