Workbook

Selected Poem

THE VISIT by Jenny Bornholdt (1960-)

You approach the world with open arms and hope it wants you.

Hope to be asked in to sit amongst the fine furniture.

The world is busy and polite and believes in independence.

You want to make friends, be boisterous.

You'd expect something a little more gregarious but you'll

take a photo anyway to show your friends.

Here it is.

Here's the world on a good day, turned slightly away, but this is no offense,

merely the sun was in its eyes and it turned briefly to avoid being blinded by it.

Waiting Shelter (Victoria University Press. 1991)

Animation/Video 

"You approach the world with open arms and hope it wants you."

• Fitting in
• Acceptance 
• Facing the world
• Reflection
• hope
• A personal connection with the world

Things to consider

• Lighting
• Reflections
• it would read wrong
• Anamorphic art

I've been exploring the idea of reflection, and I started illustrating my own. I had an idea of having a small silhouette of a person, wandering on water into what seems like an endless void.

I'm considering animating this, by having the figure stand-still, but a time-lapse of the clouds from sunrise to sunset. 

The only problem is, I don't have a camera that could do this nor the location. :(

Next Idea

After much deliberation, I have decided to go in a completely different direction and going to experiment with shadow art. 

I found some wooden letters at Kmart and spray painted them white against a blue tarpaulin so the shadows made will contrast better.

"Here's the world on a good day."

I didn't think about the letters being backward ^.^" whoops. But I really like the shapes and colors that came out of this regardless.

Now figuring out placement and how the light affects the shadows made

I needed to get creative with having my light placed securely..well kinda secured.

Now trying to create a face with my Alphabet blocks, I figured out quickly it would have been a lot easier to have had sans-serif letters rather than the serif ones. the sharp edges are difficult to smooth out.

I really like having myself placed in the image, It feels more personal and I like the idea of having to document myself interacting with it.

After class on Monday, I had some really great feedback, The idea of the imperfection of some of the letters looks really cool, maybe I can try placing my letters on different surfaces and give them a bit of a bash, sand, and splatter. Increasing the size of letters compared to others against a concrete wall maybe. Photoshop can always aid me in creating a certain shadow and making them look larger than they are. I want to also try shot with my flatmates interacting with it, or even strangers. 

After placing them imperfectly on the withered deck, how I viewed the words changed, I felt a sense of man vs nature. "The world on a good day", something that wasn't planned by humans and having nature interfere. 

Humans are anthropocentric and despite the walls we build. Nature has a way of adapting and as a result make it more beautiful. 

Examples of nature winning the battle against humans

Edited versions: Playing with contrast and colour.

Final:

Rationale:

I chose the poem “The Visit” by Jenny Bornholdt, as I felt more of a connection to it than the other two poems. I began by picking the line "You approach the world with open arms and hope it wants you." My initial thoughts were the feelings of fitting in, acceptance, facing the world and reflection.

I started by illustrating a lone figure wandering on water that reflects the sky above. I quickly abandoned this idea as it felt flat and a dead end. I decided I wasn’t going to do an illustration this project, I wanted to expand and try something new. I still wanted to go with the idea of humankind’s connection with the world.

To give myself a fresh canvas I chose another line that resonated that idea with me “Here’s the world on a good day”. I liked the idea of shadow art and experimented with it, but after getting some feedback on the following Monday I made the decision to make an installation in public using the words which I spray painted white. I ended up sanding down and using a hammer to rough up the words, and began looking around for the perfect place to display them. I looked at photos taken of nature winning the battle over humans, and found some beautiful examples of nature growing over human’s inventions, turning a heap of waste into something beautiful. The brick wall along Tasman Street was perfect for demonstrating those words and I found a section that framed it almost too perfectly.

I am very happy with the end result. I have learnt a lot through going outside my artistic comfort zone and I’m grateful that this paper encouraged and gave me the freedom to experiment and try something new. If given more time I would have liked to try different locations around the city, fitting them with different phrases and capturing people’s interactions with them as well as seeing how long they last up there for.