I've been focusing a lot of the spaces between people, using hand-knitting and wood-carving methods. My work has become more about experience, interaction, and activation. I'm trying to work intuitively and comfortable, focusing on methods I know I love, and pushing myself with concepts.
This was my bench with all my work at senior open studios.
Photo cred: Kamal Nassif
So my senior project idea has completely changed. Instead of making pieces about evolution, I'm making pieces about the experience of being human, the duality between consciousness and body, and the distances between objects. I know, they're all kind of abstract and esoteric ideas. Some more specific ideas I've been thinking about are authority, the placebo effect, the Milgram experiment, social conformity, and intimacy. I've been creating tools and experiences instead of jewelry because I've been working much more intuitively. I've also taken a break from metal, and have been working with wood, found objects, and yarn. Here are some pictures.
Statement:
Evolution occurs because of spontaneous and induced mutation in cell’s DNA. Mutations are extremely common, and occur in all humans. In natural selection, due to environmental conditions, if a mutation somehow makes an organism more efficient in its environment, the mutation will last and carry on to the next generation. Some of the ways humans have evolved due to natural selection are: standing upright; developing fingers, toes, and opposable thumbs; different races; loss of body hair; increased brain size; increased height; increased body size; and visual difference between the sexes.
In my work I aim to explore and emphasize the ways humans have evolved. Since evolution is such a broad theme, I have focused on bone structure and skin color evolution. I have drawn inspiration from scientific papers and books about evolution, images and articles online, and the basic knowledge I learned in my highschool biology class. I want my pieces to read as instruments of knowledge and awareness, with a clean, almost medical, look.
Questions:
How does my work read?
How does my work look on the body?
What does my work tell you about evolution and biology?
What other materials could I use to express the themes I’m working with?
Testing... Testing...
Hello? Website? Are you there? Is this real? I hope this works! Come back soon for more updates!
Nina
