Course Description
Summary
Sculpture is approached as a sensual and philosophical exploration of form and space, and our interactions with each. Through a range of materials and processes, we will identify visual relationships and explore how they contain and express meaning to affect us intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
Using narrative prompts, assignments will focus on developing an understanding of the formal elements of three-dimensional design and fabrication techniques using plaster, wood, clay, metal, fiber, found, and natural materials. Studio assignments will dovetail with discussions of the historical contexts from which contemporary art continues to evolve. The word ‘sculpture’ contains the word ‘culture’ reminding us that in making objects, we not only make our world, but we also encode it with our own personal values and ways of seeing.
Our choices in material, process, and idea are linked to personal sensibilities or affinities, aptitudes, tendencies of thinking and making. These choices encode the work being made. As we engage in ‘sculptural thinking’, we develop our abilities to shift our perspective to embrace different points of view, different ways of seeing and valuing, to move beyond what is familiar and to see the world in new ways.
As students look for creative solutions, impulses and methodologies will begin to reveal individual sensibilities. Intensive explorations in making encourage each student to develop a personal relationship to form and mark-making.
