Thin = in

Fourth Term Project

Sculpture

Acrylic (Dala), Paper Mache, Cardboard, Newspaper, Texture Paste, Memory Foam, One plastic cup, Liquid Tempara, Gelatin mixture, 100's and 1000's, glitter.

Cari van Niekerk (me)

"If you are not thin, you will never truly be in"

  -Cari van Niekerk.

Planning:

The theme for this project was "the kitchen." Personally, I did not find it easy to think of something to create from that theme. It is not as easy as it may sound, but at the end of this two week struggle with planning this masterpiece, I would say that it was well worth the effort.

To begin with, I just jotted down all of the ideas that popped into my mind from thinking about a kitchen. 

The first idea that popped into my head, was where you take a lot of household items that are normally allocated inside the kitchen, and stack them in a certain formation, that, when a light shone upon it from a certain angle, the shadow formed a certain picture. A picture of a person eating a lot of fast food, yet staying quite thin, or something of the sort.

Rough sketch of shadow art

I did not quite know how to express the feelings that that idea evoked, so I continued with the jotting down of ideas.

The second idea that came to mind, was an idea where I took normal everyday household items that everyone knows how to use and use everyday. Then I take away its purpose.

Tampered kitchen tools

In the picture seen on the right of the screen, it is seen that I thought of a few objects that I use quite often and just made it pointless. The following objects were thought of:

1. A cheese grater

2. A spatula

3. A pot

4. A drinking glass

5. A measuring spoon

These objects signify the life out of a  child's viewpoint. No child will know exactly how to use an object from the kitchen unless someone shows them exactly how to use it. 

Parents sometimes forget how a child thinks and, through the usage of this project, I would've made them feel the same type of confusion a child feels when they want to use a object but just do not know how to. 

The third idea that came to mind, was the fact that when you look into the front side of a spoon, the world as you know it, turned around. It intrigued me, to be honest.

World out of the viewpoint of spoon

I tried to expand this idea a little bit, by thinking of the fact that not everything always is as it seems and trying to create a art project that signifies just that. 

As I rambled through ideas, this one suddenly hit me:

The brain tells you to stop what you are doing when you are experiencing pain. Pain is the thing that keeps you from completely destroying your body. Now, what would happen if you take away that pain? Would you still stop hurting yourself when you do, or would something else happen?

I thought of how to express this idea visually. Here are a few scenario's that I came up with from using that idea as motivation:

Planning page in journal

• When you are busy cutting a piece of celery, you stop as soon as you get to the end. What if you never realize that you are at the end of the celery? Oh, that's right! You would continue cutting into your finger. Just casually chopping it up into little pieces of yummy flesh to finish that finger salad off with.

• When you are busy peeling that potato with your favorite, sharpest knife, you do not stop when you get to the bottom of the potato. No. You continue cutting your own sensitive wrist right through that big, juicy artery of yours.

Planning page in journal

• When you are busy balling out that watermelon, and you just do not have enough to serve a full helping to your guests, you just can't resist continuing into your own hand. That big, puffy part of the inside of your hand just looks so delicious and possible to make a nice meal out of. Who would notice the difference between the watermelon balls and flesh balls anyways? They're both soft, sweet, juicy and blood red anyways. 

After this last idea, I decided that I just went a little bit too far with the gory part of my natural preference when it comes to my art projects, so I stopped jotting down all of these weird ideas and started to string them all together to create a epic project that would be PG friendly.

After a lot of thinking, googling for some inspirational artworks and having a heck of a lot of conversations with the people around me, I finally got inspiration for my final art project.

Inspiration from Cleas Oldenburg and others

Claes Oldenburg Inspirational photos

The idea that I came up with, was to create an extremely over sized measuring spoon, with a lot of sweets that look delicious on a whole new level in the inside of the "head"of the spoon. 

Page of planning in journal

The measuring spoon will say "5g" on its neck and it will have pieces of glass sticking out of the bottom of the head. It will be a very warm, attractive orange-red colour and it will be placed on top of a tray that is completely blackened. 

Planning page in journal

There will be a delicious strawberry milkshake, two doughnuts and a gigantic cupcake placed on top of the head of the spoon. The main colour of these sweets, will be pink and white, as mostly girls are super obsessed with their weight. Most of them bellieve that they are extremely overweight, even though they are not.

Planning page in journal

The final product:

Here are a few pictures of how this project turned out to look like after it was done:

Side view of sculpture

Bottom, from view of spoon (glass at bottom)

Top, front view of sculpture

What everything signifies:

Colour:

The red-orange colour of the spoon signifies that there is danger there as well as entice you to come closer and feel welcome when you look at this sculpture. The black of the tray contrasts heavily with the orange of the spoon, which also causes the artwork to catch your eye. The black of this tray also shows the viewer that there is something sinister going on in this artwork, as the colour black is often associated with something bad that is happening. This oclour is thus not only chosen since it contrasts so much with the spoon, but also since it gives a subtle hint that you should stay away from this spoon and everything in or on it, as it is only going to cause bad things to happen to you.

The pink of the foodstuff shows the viewer that this art project is mainly focused on women. Girls or women are the ones who are mostly concerned about their weight and would go to any extent to try to get it as far down as they possibly can. Males, on the other hand, do normally not worry as much about their weight as the females do. As a result, there is no overwhelmingly blue colour in this sculpture. But, since there are a few males out there that are also concerned about being overweight, blue has been used in a few different places in the food, like in the straw of the milkshake, as well as the blue hundreds and thousands. 

Size:

The gigantic spoon contrasts with the normal sized foodstuff and the normal sized tray. This has been done, since it now emphasizes the fact that the spoon is, in reality, too big to fit in anyone's mouth. 

The foodstuff and tray are both life sized, as it emphasized the fact that that this truly is what happens in real life. It shows that this is a story told that is based upon happenings in real life. 

Other:

The glass pieces stuck on the bottom of the head of this spoon, gives the feeling that if it was possible to fit this gigantic spoon inside your mouth, the moment you bit down to eat the foodstuff, will be the moment when you cut your mouth into a million tiny little pieces. The glass is thus, in a way, a warning on not to eat the foodstuff.

On the spoon, there is a part that says "5g". This shows that, whoever gets the craving for these foodstuff, only allows themselves to eat 5 gram of it at a time. We all know how little amount that is of anything.

All of these components together, sends the feeling that you should not eat fast food, since "if you're not thin, you're not in."

Observation drawings:

I decided to play around a little bit with pen this term. The effect that came from it, was super realistic. The way that I made these observation drawings, was by drawing the actual picture, smudging certain parts of it and then redrawing over the smudges to create highlights in the actual drawings. 

This effect can be seen in these four drawings:

4 Observation drawings of lips

When I begun drawing these drawings, I did not think that there was room for improvement on the manner that I used, drawing these drawings, so I started off by drawing an eye in the same manner than what I previously had done.

Eye in the middle is another observation drawing

Absolute Nightmare

Third term project 2015

Self-portrait

Acrylic (Dala), Acrylic Retarder, Charcoal, old fantasy books from childhood, Paper Mache, newspaper, Leather thread, 2x canvasses.

Cari van Niekerk (me)

"That moment when your best just isn't good enough."

  - Cari van Niekerk.

Rough planning:

To begin this project, approximately a week was spent to just get the creative juices flowing. What I mean by that, is that I spent a week just to get my idea formed and roughly jot down all of the ideas that came to my head.

Like always, I struggled with this part, as I only use a theme for my art project that I really feel speaks to me, and not just the first thing that I think of. 

Since the theme for this project was dreams, I thought it to be a good idea to sleep a lot and then quickly jot down the main plot of the dreams that I had in my journal, by either using words or making a quick sketch of the the scenario or the person that stood out the most to me throughout the duration of this dream. This plan did not work out too well, since I for one, struggle to have dreams when I sleep, or to remember them at all once I wake up. 

Though I did struggle with this technique, I did end up with these pages in my art:

Rough sketches from dreams

After a while I started getting this dream that reoccurs almost every night. After you dream it for a few nights, you start to remember even the finest details of it. This dream, or "nightmare", went as follows:

Running through a dark forest being chased by someone without the slightest idea of how the living creature looks like.  Breathing relentlessly as we try to catch our breath as we grow ever more tired. We've been caught, and have no escape as yet. Sitting in a sealed confinement, with no contact to the outside world, no cellphone reception or anything to help us break our escape. My father is struggling with 21st century technology, mother is swaying back and forth like a pendulum clock, sister is busy staring into the depths of the unknown in a cold dark corner, and I, well I'm trying to scream in case someone hears us from the outside but yet I've lost my voice in the process which probably means we'll never find our escape. All we can do is pray and hope that we get out of this alive, as this feels like a nightmare that will never end.


I decided to base my art project on the feelings that evolved after experiencing this recurring dream. The feelings of when your best just isn't good enough. 

Final planning

I finally decided to take the concept of this dream, the feelings that it evoked, and make an actual artwork of it. This artwork does not signify the actual happenings that took place during this dream, but rather shows a rigorous exhibition of the feelings of when your best just isn't good enough. 

I decided to do this by splitting this art project into two different sections. The bottom half of this art piece (seen in the bottom half of the composition sketch) contains the feet of myself. This signifies that I cannot get away, even though I would really want to. The fact that this canvass is in black and white, means that this part of the dream is not remembered by me so vividly. This is about the only part of this project that is directly linked with the dream that it is based upon.

Rough composition
Left half = bottom canvass: Right half = top canvass

The part of the dream that it signifies, is the part where I am running away from the living creature that is following me. Even though I want to get away, and try my best to get away from this creature, he somehow has ties on me already, that prevents me from getting any further in my mission of getting away from him. This can be seen in the way that my legs are entwined and tied to prevent motion. 


On the top half of this canvass, I appear with a mouth that has grown shut and torn apart in desperation of being able to utter a word. This is why my face looks so gory. I am desperately trying to get away from the clutches that grasps me and prevents me from progress in the mission of making an as loud noise as possible just to get some help from the outside.

Explanation of the form

The hands in the background is holding me back and It is trying to prevent me from progressing. It is succeeding, even though I am desperate to progress.

There are stitches that bind the two canvasses together. These stitches signifies the fact that there are parts inside the dream that you never remember. It is the percentage of the dream that you forget after 10 seconds from waking up.

There are hands that reaches from the edges of this art work that are holding stitches that reaches into the middle of the canvass. These are puppeteer hands. They signify that, no matter what you try to do, you will never have full control over everything in your dreams.

Since I was the person who was the main character in my nightmare, I decided that it would only be fitting if I am the model for this artwork. 

Here are the pictures that I decided to use to paint this project:

Photos of myself posing for the artwork

I physically made the makeup that you can see on my face on the picture, before I took the pictures. The mask thing that is on my face, is made out of cotton, a gelatin mix, fake blood and a lot of makeup. After I modeled for the pictures, I took removed the gelatin and stuck down the mask inside my journal for safekeeping. Here it is:

More photos and the gelatin mask used for photos

The final product:

Here are a few pictures of how this project turned out to look like at the end of the third term.

Fist on the bottom, right corner

Bottom canvass close-up

Top canvass close-up

What everything signifies:

Background:

I am stacking books as well as old pages from the books, on top of each other. These symbolize that the unimaginable became a reality. The figures that you could only possibly think would exist in novels, actually became a reality. Thus it "climbed"out of the books and became a real, living nightmare. 

The strings that connects the two canvasses, signifies the gap that you get in dreams. 

Colour:

The colour of the hands that is holding this character, fades out into black, as it forms a part of the puppeteers. 

The top canvass:

Top canvass close-up

The top canvass is going to be in colour. That symbolizes that you remember

 your nightmares vividly. Your nightmares will not be forgot even about a few weeks, or even months after you had it. 

There are hands that are pulling me backward. They symbolize that I cannot reach my goal, no matter how hard I try. This means that my best just isn't good enough.

The torn mouth echoes the fact that I cannot say anything, no matter how hard I try to. It signifies the fact that my voice went hoarse as soon as I needed it the most.

The bottom canvass:

Bottom canvass close-up

My feet has been drawn out of charcoal. They signify that no matter how horrible a dream is, there is always a part of it that you can't seem to remember as vividly, as it did not scar you as much.

There is not going to be anything weird about this scenario. It represents the everyday dream, calmness and comfort. This is the type of dream that you are happy to have. This is also how your nightmares usually start out as.

Observation drawings:

Like every other term, there is also the perk of the observation drawings. Here are the five drawings that I made out of pen, as well as Acrylic paint:

Observation drawing: Impala Lilly painted out of Acrylics

Hi, I'm 64

Second Term Project 2015

THEME:    Portrait

MEDIUM: Acrylic (Dala), Acrylic Retarder, Paper Mache, Newspaper, Cardboard, Duct Tape

ARTIST;   Cari van Niekerk (me)

"Pictures capture the moments and the memories. Paintings capture the emotion and the soul."

     -Cari van Niekerk.

Planning:

I strived to capture the soul of this one person that I met almost a day or two after we got this project. She had an extreme impact on the way that I see and experience things in life, as well as made me thankful for everything that I have, as well as all of the privelages that I have. 

I thus thought it to be fitting if she became my model for this project. And thus my journey began...

I started off by gathering all of the charecteristics that she has, as you can see here on the picture on the left. 

They followed:

* Depressed

*Thankful

*Tough

*Lonesome
*Greedy

*Wise

*Easilly pleased

*Hard Working

As I jotted down these charecteristics, a brilliant idea for a backround popped into my head. An idea that entailed a lot of work, but would cause my work to be unique, as well as grab the attention of (hopefully) everyone that is around it and sees this piece. These two things are both classified as great priorities and thus I ended up on making this idea. 

The picture on the right, is a page that I just messed upon. I wanted to do this, as I wantedto point out how cruel life is and what disgusting beings there are on the face of the earth. That giant heart in the middle of the page on the right, signifies that the deeds that the people all around me have done, have made me extremely sad and broke my heart into a milion pieces.

Finally, I took some pictures of my model. Yes, she is only 64. I know she does not really look like it, but I saw the birth sertificate with my own eyes. 

The backround balls out from the inside out. the face is thus in the deepest part of the canvas and the sides of this art picture graduately reaches a height or almost half a metre. If I can put it in other words, imagine taking a square shaped bowl, pouring fast-drying paint in there and adding a Netball ball in there. You wait until the paint dries and then you remove the ball. That's how the canvas looks. 

You can see a rough composition sketch on the bottem of the right hand side of this page.

What everything signifies:

The roundness represents the circle of life. The face sort of fades into the backgroung, to create the illusion that the model becomes an object and just a symbol of poverty. The blue represents depression. It graduately fades into black, which symbolises the difficulties and struggles that she goes through. The ellivated edges of this painting, places focus on the hollow face in the middle of the canvas. You thus cannot help but to notice her. If you look at this art piece from any side, you feel cut off from it and this sifgnifies that no one cares for her, that she is all alone in this world and that no-one wants to admit to the struggle that exists in this world. The thus just becomes an object and signifies the poor class in this world.

The final product:

This is how the final product came out.

Observation drawings:

Like you probably have guessed by now, it does not end there. This blog goes on!

Every term we also have to hand in 5 observation drawings. here are the five that I have created last term.

Charcoal drawings

The Parallax Mistake Painting

FIRST TERM PROJECT 2015

THEME:     Water

MEDIUM:  Acrylic (Dala), Acrylic Retarder, Acrylic Gloss

ARTIST:    Cari van Niekerk (me)

All life revolves around water. Without water, there would be no life. No creation. No Nature. And, of course, we all know how beautiful nature is. Thus, we try our best to preserve it's beauty.

Planning:

I started off with an idea that revolved around the damage that water can cause. I used the fact that people inflicts damage to nature, as my inspiration for this ide. I wanted to draw a picture where a tsunami is being transformed into a monster like wave, on the peak of destroying everything in its wake. This idea is illustrated in my art journal in the following pictures

The pupicture on the left is the original idea that i had. I just wanted to Create a tsunami that took back the ground that the humans destroyed from nature.

The papage on the right explains the concept revolving around this idea. (Though it has been written in Afrikaans.)

These two pages shows the tsunami that  I would've PainPainted, as well as the tiny buildings and the face that the wave would've turned into. That creepy looking face, signifies the anger of nature and the destructive power that it has.

Water can be cruel. It can be deadly. But. It is still filled with a bunch of mysteries that would take a genius to comprehend the complexity of. This is why I based my art project on the Parallax Mistake.

A site called Chemistry Glossary states that Parallax a deceptive change of the position of an object is, which is observed while the position of the observer changes. Position of eye at all volumetric vessels must be at the same level as the meniscus. If not, the parallax will cause an error while reading the position of the meniscus of a liquid in a burette. It will be a positive mistake if the eye is lower, and negative if the eye is higher than the meniscus plane

The parallax mistake inspired me to make an art project of a Phoenix that is underneath the water, on top of a hand that it is resting upon. This is also seen as a "mistake," as, if you think about it, when fire and water gets into contact with each other, the fire either turns the water into steam, or, if its an excessive amount of water (like I used in this art piece) it would bliss the fire. It is seen as impossible, as the Phoenix keeps on burning even though it is underneath the surface of the water. This can be seen, as the bright red colour of the Phoenix's scorching feathers have been faded by a blue wash.

My planning for this idea took place on the following two pages of my journal. I ended up likig this idea more than my previous one, so i finally decided to do this one as my project instead of the previous idea. This is lpnely bcause of the fact that it was so different from any other idea that I had. It isbvery unique.

Final Draft:

The Phoenix is seen as a mythical creature and thus cannot exist. This is one of the reasons why I picked this specific creature. This Phoenix is not real and thus it cannot exist. I am exclaiming the fact that it is not real, by comparing it to a mistake that exists in in nature.

Observation Drawings:

Like every term, the art project was not the only thing that I had to do for this term. I also have 5 observation drawings that I drew. They are all different types of earphones.