Introduction
The Zenith project is our final freestyle where we take everything that we have learned and we try and show our growth over the past two years. It is also a big way for us to branch out and take final risks, in order to create something new that we have never done before. This project is very free and not very limited, in order to allow us to try anything that we would like to create. Personally, I decided to try and create a cage/sculpture with sharks made out of metal wire. This project was a passion because I love making things hands on and I really enjoyed working through my process for it. I learned a ton with this project and I am very happy with my final result!
Artist Statement
For my Zenith project I decided to create a wire sculpture of sharks in a cage structure. I decided to focus on this for my project because I have never done metal sculptures and I thought it would be interesting to learn. When I was coming up with the idea I knew that I wanted to use metal wire and I wanted to create a hanging diorama. When planning it, I realized that it would be much too difficult to show for exhibition, so I changed it to a free standing project. As I developed the idea further, the different elements of it began to come together quite easily and it became clear that I wanted to create sharks and fish hanging in a cage structure. I then added LED lights as well as a painted base to mimic the ocean.
Throughout the process, I had many problems that I encountered and although they seemed time consuming and daunting, I was able to work through them. Initially, when I was creating the cage for the sharks, I had to cut the hardware cloth and individually wrap every loose piece of metal to attach it properly to itself. This involved a lot of work with pliers and I had some scares as a few of the prongs broke off. As I continued working through it, I got better and was then able to more efficiently get it done. After finishing the structure, I continued making more of the sharks. This was my favorite part of this project. It was very relaxing and was also something that I worked through and taught myself to do. After finishing the sharks, I got to work with assembling it all and putting in the blue lights. Another problem that I had was with creating the led lights to go around the bottom. When I first got the lights, they were not working, and I ended up having to work through taking apart the container and making a better connection with the lights in order for it to properly show. I then had to wrap the lights over and over around the base of the structure in order to properly space each light and place it. Then, after I had finished all of it, I had issues with the batteries and ended up having to replace them. Overall, this experience was very valuable and although it was lengthy and hard, I really enjoyed working through it. I will definitely keep creating things with metal wire, as this was one of the best takeaways that I got. I also realize how much I learn from having to create a project like this with completely different materials than I am used to. I learned how to use a plethora of tools as well as these new materials, and it was a very good experience.
Final Product!
Reflection
Hi my name is Kayla Bistrain and for my Zenith project, I decided to create a physical product that included metal wire sculpture art. I ended up choosing this project because I have never tried to make sculptures or any sort of physical art with nontraditional materials, so I thought that it would be very interesting to try. I started out by looking at different metal sculptures, and ended up deciding on building a metal cage-like container to hang the metal sharks from. In order to prepare for this project, I researched different types of metal wire, tin, copper, and aluminum, and I also researched more about different types of sculptures and how to go about making them with alternative materials. Some of my artistic influences were off of pinterest, and when I was making my moodboard my idea was very different, so I ended up taking inspiration from these projects, but ultimately pivoted my idea.
The 21st century skills that I improved upon the most were creativity, self direction, and risk taking. I had never created anything like this before, and so it took a lot of me learning and trying things out in order to figure out how to even begin this project. I think that in the future I will definitely utilize wire sculptures, as this was some of the most fun that I had during this project and I really enjoyed being able to think of a design and just jump right into making it. I would only go into it with a picture or idea in mind and just seeing how you can start to mold the metal in order to get it how you want it is very interesting and powerful. I feel like I accomplished a lot with this project, and I think that it allowed me to branch out and learn about things that I would not have otherwise done. This ties into the risk taking aspect of it, but this project pushed me to create things that I have never personally seen before, and allowed me to be creative and really envision something completely different and new. I also learned a lot about problem solving and how to fix and work with the problems that you are faced with in a productive way. I feel very accomplished with elevating my skills and experiences, and most definitely igniting my own passion. I was so excited once I got to a certain point in this project, and I had a moment where I realized that I was so happy that this is what I had chosen. I got so into it and so passionate in just getting to work, that I knew that this was perfect for me. This is a big part of the project that I hope to take away from this, and I hope that I will be able to have more of those moments in the future. If I could do the project over, I don’t think I would change anything. I think that I wish I had experimented more with metal wire sculpture and maybe delved into a whole project about that, but overall I was very happy with what I made and loved the whole process. I also just loved how as I continued on, the project meant more and more to me. It started out as a random idea, and as I worked on it, the deeper the meaning became. The idea developed into more of a perspective on humans and how we like to trap animals and beings into cages so that they can look at them, and how we need to take a step back and recognize how harmful our actions really are. This has a long lasting value and I think that without this project I never would have recognized this idea. In summation, this project was very special to me and I am so happy with the outcome. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it!