Assignment 4A: Sculpture

First of all, I would like to explain a bit about Sculpture. According to Wikipedia, Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials - typically stone such as marble - or metal, glass, or wood. Softer ("plastic") materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light.

For this assignment, we can only use mounting board to produce a sculpture based on the theme"sustainability" and it has to be in monochrome. Monochrome basically means a series of colour formed by adding black or white, such as light yellow, sunset yellow, dark yellow and so on.

Shall we start? =)

Step 1: Surf the internet for some ideas

I have decided to use blocks as my main design concept

Step 2: Trial
















My initial idea is to cut the shapes of some blocks and glue them on the mounting board. However, I feel that the effect is not as nice as I thought. Hence, it is time for some changes.

Step 3: Measure, cut and design

After some brainstorming and getting advice from my friends, I have made up my mind to use this design. The shape is a trapezium with blocks of a variety of shapes which are in black, grey and white colour.

The concept is based on the following points:

- Trapezium gives the shape of a mountain
Most of mountains are having the shape of a trapezium. By making the sculpture in such way, it allows others to think that this sculpture's theme is based on nature, which fulfills the requirement of the assignment - sustainability. Sustainability has a lot of definitions. However, in this assignment, I interpret sustainability as the maintenance of the environment by using the natural resources wisely.

- Different blocks are used to fill the centre

Mountains are made up of many types of soil. We may find clay, sand, slit and others. Blocks of the same colour represent one type of soil texture. Just like our Mother Earth, it exists in a few layers of texture, which are crust, upper mantle, mantle, outer core and inner core. Each layer will have different types of minerals and soil texture.

Besides, I have chosen blocks as they seem alike with the bricks we use in construction. In order to build a sustainable building, we have to use the correct material so that it can last long and environmental friendly. Buildings that are built in such a way that they can save electricity are considered sustainable. When buildings are stable and lasting, we can reduce deforestation as the demand for timber used in construction has dropped. This will indirectly help in sustaining the environment.

Step 4: Glue together

This is it! My sculpture. =)