paper
Choi Keeryong – Artist Talk
I recently attended an artist talk which featured Choi Keeryong and his glass artwork. Keeryong works with the theme of ‘aesthetics of the cultural uncanny’ and how moving country has affected his life. Keeryong explained that he had a language barrier and that it affects him through day to day life; and how he uses his disadvantage as an advantage.
One of keeryong’s pieces that really grabbed my attention was ‘3rd Battalion 11th Company 1st platoon’ (2007). This piece exhibited a set of glass military helmets, all lined up in formation. The glass of the helmets where coloured in basic dark green, but the viewer could still see through the glass. Under the glass where civilian clothing, wrapped in brown parcel paper tied with sting. The reason behind the clothes was because the country where Keeryong was born, they have a tradition that when you graduate through military training, you removed you civilian clothing o transition to military uniform; this transition gives the graduated a new identity while leaving behind the old one. The civilian clothes are then sent to the families of the graduate, to notify the family that they have passed.
I’m very intrigued by this cultural experience, and how Keeryong has displayed it. The clothes representing the person underneath the uniform, and that you can barely see the clothes through the glass. The room in which this piece was exhibited was a small compact room, the reason for the room was to give the viewer the feeling of leading the troops to war, or to give commands. I’m just so intrigued in the cultural difference and the intimate relation of identities.
Mono-Printing Workshop
Hi everyone! 
So last Wednesday I had a mono-printing workshop; it was a little workshop for everyone to learn how to use the space and how to make mono-prints. To make a mono-print you need to place a small amount of print ink onto a flat surface (a sheet of metal is best, a surface with ins’t your desk), you then use a roller to spread the ink into a thin layer in the shape of a small square, roughly a bit larger than an A4 sheet of paper; this is your ink-well prepped. To prep your work surface, you need to set out the paper you’re using into an easy to access pile. Have any tools easy to access too, as you don’t want to be looking through drawers with inky hands. Once your work space is set, grab a new clean roller, roll over your ink-well, and roll over another flat surface (like before, not your desk space. You want a surface you can move to a sink to clean. Depending on the ink you use, it could be hard to remove it from the surface). Once you’ve prepped your printing surface, place a scrap piece of paper onto the ink and lightly rub the paper. This is to remove any excess ink; to prevent your work being too inky. Lift the page and place a clean piece onto the surface.
At this point, it’s your decision on what you do. You can draw onto the page of the paper and the ink will pick it up on the other side as a mirror image. You can use any item to make an impression onto the page, your hand, a pen, a toothbrush, etc. When you have drawn your image, peel the paper off the ink, the image you have drawn will be on the other side of the paper. At this point, you could place another piece of paper on to the image and make a series of mono-prints. If your image comes out too faded, you need to roll your roller in to the ink-well, and roll a new layer of ink onto your work surface, and repeat the process.
For the workshop I had to make a couple of prints to learn how the ink would appear onto the page. After that we were told to try and make images using the process. The first image is my practice piece. The rest of the images are my work pieces. I aimed for a cosmic look, and I believe a few turned out the way I wanted.
Enjoy.
Pepakura – Staff
Here is the staff, it’s currently in the strengthening process, being covered in glue and newspaper. The problem with this one is that you cant get inside it to pop up the sides as they collapse, really, I think it’ll give it a old look to it. Just need to finish covering this, and then move onto painting. Before I paint it though, I’m going to finish building the armor and then cover that so I can paint it all at once. Enjoy.
Pepakura – Mask
Here are some images of the mask after being paper machéd, It’s taking a long time to make these as I’m working on three different pepakura projects at once. I was going to wear them to Comic Con in Newcastle this weekend, but I worry they may not be ready in time. I can confidently say the mask will be finished, but the staff and armour may not. Besides that, I will continue to finished them regardless as it will be fun to wear when it’s finished. Enjoy.
Pepakura – Mask
Here is the mask I said I’d post. Looking at a new method called ‘Pepakura’, this is paper modelling, where you cut out the shapes and glue them together to create a sculpture. This particular mask is from a game called ‘Skyrim’ which most gamers are familiar with; it is a Dragon Priest Mask. I got the design randomly from the internet and can’t find this design, although I know a place where you can get a similar design and more, from an user called ‘ZombieGrimm’ on DeviantArt. Here is there page http://zombiegrimm.deviantart.com/
I am trying to make a costume using this method, but for speed (and I have had a look at other options) I’m going to paper mache the mask to make it ridged and then paint it, hopefully it turns out well. Enjoy.
Railston Artworks 