Assemblage

My last 3D sculpture assignment was to create an assemblage of what a relic might look like from our invented cultures. As you can tell from my last couple of assignments, I switched gears to focus on the current pandemic instead of my invented culture. I think this pandemic has been a mental and emotional roller coaster ride for everyone. It was really difficult for me to come up with an idea for my relic. I had to use whatever was available at my house, but my house isn’t exactly full of knick-knacks and random stuff since I minimized my load in order to move into the new house and I haven’t really been motivated to go outside to pick up nature items. And even if I had those things, it didn’t seem like it would really mean anything to me to portray this pandemic. I thought about what has been in a shortage during the pandemic, such as hand sanitizer, hand soap, Lysol, Clorox wipes, masks, gloves, toilet paper, etc. Those are some of the things that have been giving me anxiety — worries about running out of supplies or not being able to pick it up when I actually need it. It’s kind of funny how these regular items that didn’t have much meaning before this happened are things we all the sudden seem to so desperately need. I wanted to focus on this “importance” in my artwork about the pandemic. But at the same time, I was slightly stressed about using these supplies for artwork because they have become almost like treasures. I had some ideas about using gloves and an old mask that I used for my sculpture class, and that’s when I came across my undergrad school’s alumni Instagram post. The School of Visual Arts (SVA) often posts about where our alumni are and what they are doing now. And the most recent post was about some SVA alumni that have been published in the New Yorker Magazine for COVID-19 artwork. I was particularly inspired by David Brandon Geeting’s photograph. See below.

This photo got the wheels turning on how I wanted to approach my glove idea. With that in mind, I thought about the next thing that has been important to me during the pandemic, which has been my faith. By using the mask, gloves, and the Bible, I made an arrangement to portray what my hope is through this pandemic storm.

Originally, I wanted to interlock the fingers of the hand. However, regular glue was not working nor could I use hot glue because it would burn a hole right through. I tried to use tape as well, but that did not hold well either.