Final Show

Final Images of work

The Caterpillar

The Mad Hatter

The Queen of Hearts

The Cheshire Cat

The White Rabbit

 

Final Evaluation

At the beginning of the Final major project I was really stuck with what I wanted to do for my idea, I got stressed out by not wanting to limit myself down to much with an idea but also not have it be to broad of a subject. I went for the starting point of Alice in Wonderland as it has been something of a big influence in my life. It is something of a reoccurring subject matter that I have dealt with within my artwork for many years now. I wanted to come back to Alice and create an installation space to transport the viewer into the land of Wonderland. I had the basic concept of wanting to create a space where the viewer would crawl through a tunnel and be presented with the artworks. However, I didn’t have a clue what exactly I could make for the work itself. This was something that I struggled with very personally as it kept giving me panic attacks daily not knowing where my project was going and being unable to get words out of what my concept was. Once I sat down and started researching into Alice things started to pull together. I started by watching six different movie versions of Alice. Each being so similar being that they followed the book but visually so different, each having their own personal spin on things. Alongside watching the films I read through the full book of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, the sequel Alice through the looking glass, and even the original manuscript for the book Alice’s adventures underground. It was interesting to see how closely the films stuck to the original book, but also how most of them took characters and scenes from the sequel mixing the two books together. Characters like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee are from the sequel book not the original, yet in nearly every film adaptation these characters appear. As Alice has been a big part of my life, I have a sizable collection of different copies of the books. I spent some time going through all of the ones with different illustrations to the most famous of the illustrations (John Tenniel) to see how different illustrators interpreted Alice and the other characters.

For the next step in my project I did some character association and wrote down what jumps into my mind when I think of the six main characters I chose. This helped me get ideas flowing about what I could actually make for each individual piece. First off to enter the piece the viewer would be required to crawl through a tunnel, representing the trip down the rabbit hole. This would consist of two hula hoops and some fabric sewn together. I considered lining the inner walls of the tunnel with something to represent the furniture and other items Alice sees on her fall. My first idea for the pieces was for the Cheshire Cat. I wanted to create a piece consisting of lots of alginate casts of mouths all strung together. I had seen an alginate cast done of a mouth by a fellow student and I really liked the way it looked, capturing every detail to the smile. However later on through a discussion with a friend about this idea, they suggested that I make some fake teeth instead of the casts as it may look a bit rough. I liked this idea but decided instead of making teeth I would search EBay to see what kind of teeth they had, real or fake I wasn’t bothered as both would be creepy. I found some realistic looking acrylic teeth and ordered them. I wanted to create a grin with too many teeth, adding an unsettling vibe to the piece. I was unsure at the time whether this would be the grin on its own, or attached to a soft toy of a cat.

The second idea I had for a piece was for the Queen of hearts. What I find ironic about the Queen is that being that she is the Queen of Hearts she should be associated with love. However due to her cruel and angry nature. I came up with the idea to use discarded valentine’s day gifts from charity shops. These objects have a sort of sad irony to them as they are bought out of affection and to say ‘I love you’ however once these objects are thrown away to charity shops or wherever that sentiment is gone, the item is underappreciated or that love is completely over. I had the material I wanted to use, yet I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the items themselves to make the queen. I considered making a 2D canvas like one of my previous works this year, or making a dress out of them for a mannequin or making the entire human form out of the teddies. The next piece I worked on my idea for was The White Rabbit, for the rabbit I wanted to make a rabbits head from mod roc and cover it in some of the real rabbit fur I had left over from my ‘Unorthodox’ project. However, I didn’t have much light colours fur left so I would need to find a way to bleach or colour the fur myself. Next up was The Mad Hatter, I wanted to create a figure buried under all sorts of different hats, as if the hatter himself has been buried under the hats he has created. For the final character I would make The Caterpillar, I had the idea to create the caterpillar out of vape tanks as the character is seen smoking a Hookah pipe in the original book and most adaptations, to me I see the vape pens as a modern day equivalent to smoking a hookah. However, this was something that would be hard to source as the pens are fairly expensive to buy and to get enough it would be pricey, so I would need to find peoples old broken ones to use. As I was unsure if I would be able to source enough of them I had a backup idea of creating the caterpillar out of many shoes and spray-painting them blue. I really wasn’t sold on this idea as I really wanted to do the Vape pen idea but it would be hard to source enough. You may realise that in all of these character ideas I never mention Alice, that is because I feel that as the books are ‘Alice’s adventures in wonderland’ I wanted it to be the viewer’s adventures in wonderland so I didn’t feel it was necessary to create Alice as essentially I am turning the viewer into Alice.

To begin the making process, I started with the White Rabbits head as that one was the cheapest to make, it also helped that it was the one with a shape I could go off of. I started with a ball of newspaper and build up layers of mod roc, squeezing it to shape as it dried I repeated this process with the ears too, once fully dry I got some fake white fur and glued it all over the head. I had wanted to use real fur, but I didn’t have and light fur, it wouldn’t have got here in time ordering some more and through research I discovered that bleaching it could damage the fur so I made the decision that it was too risky. I attached red teddy bear eyes as it is stated in the book that the rabbit has pink eyes. The next character I started was The Caterpillar, for the shape I got a blue sock and stuffed it with fluff.  I found out you can buy the vape tanks for only one pound in cheap shops so I was able to acquire enough of them to make the piece I wanted. I glued the tanks all the way up the body of the caterpillar, I used vape pen batteries as legs and to balance the piece upright. Next came the Cheshire Cat, I found a toy cat in a cheap shop, I decided that I would test the teeth on a cuddly toy and if it didn’t work right I could always get more teeth and try again. I made a big grin out of the teeth on the mouth of the cat, I then filled in the grin with extra teeth to make it more disconcerting and uncomfortable to look at. I feel that this piece ended up working well so I decided I would keep it. The Queen of Hearts came next, I felt that the mannequin was better suited to my ideas so I went with it, finding a cheap mannequin I found an old dress of mine that I had kept for sentimental reasons for my previous relationship, however since that relationship is over I felt nothing for destroying the dress and in a way it went well with the rest of my materials. I hot glued the valentine’s day teddies too the dress, cutting them into pieces to make them go further.

The next step I took in my project was to make the tunnel for the entrance to my installation, I was intending to make it out of two hula hoops and some fabric, however during a group crit one of my peers told me they had a children’s tunnel they were getting rid of that is designed for a bed so it was rather large. They brought it in and it was perfect for the job. It just needed a few adjustments to make it work in the space, I had considered changing the fabric of the tunnel so it looked earthier, however due to it being a child’s tunnel I liked that element as a lot of my work often reflects childhood. Going back to the caterpillar I wanted to make him a mushroom to sit upon like in the books. Using one of the hats I had gathered for the hatter piece I found that the caterpillar sat perfectly on the top of it, and it had a mushroom like shape to it, using some plastic pots to make the stem I had the basic shape for the mushroom. I covered the pots in paper then in empty cigarette cases to follow on the theme of smoking. For the head of the mushroom I again used the empty cigarette cases to build the slits on the underneath of a mushroom, for the top I used empty cigarette boxes. For the mad hatter I decided it best to make an underneath shape for the hats to be glued onto to easily achieve the human form. I had in previous years seen plaster casts being made of a full body. Wearing old clothes and a swim cap I got into position while a plaster soaked bed sheet was draped over me. More buckets of plaster were poured over me and left to dry between layers for nearly a whole hour. This was such a surreal experience to be trapped in one position under warm and heavy plaster for an hour. Once it was fully dry and I was able to be released from the cast, I found I actually really liked the piece as it was and felt the hats getting glued all over would have totally ruined it. Instead I decided I would scatter the hats around the base of the figure, to still have that hatter element.

Once all the pieces where complete I then moved onto my installation space, I needed to cover the walls with something to transform the viewer from the college space. I had considered painting onto canvas but I’m not a confident painter and I didn’t even know what I could paint. This led me to deciding upon using fabric as a wall hanging to change the space. I chose three different fabrics that to me looked like Victorian wallpapers. They also all are a shade of green to add that Wonderland nature element to it. This really tied the whole room together and complimented the pieces well. I now need to work on the door and the flooring in the space, however that wont be done until just before the show.

As my project stands almost 100% complete I am thrilled with the outcome of the installation. Each piece captured the personalities of the story characters well. I feel with the walls being changed and crawling through the tunnel the viewers will feel that sense of Wonderland and that they have been transported to another realm.