First year Second Studio Session Week 2

Proportion

Still dealing with transformation. Asked to consider the notion of proportion, students are to begin thinking more about the relationship between form and content. A simple illustration is given. In pre-Renaissance religious painting the figure of Christ was often portrayed as much larger than any other figure in a composition; a simple indication of his relative importance. In a particular Alfred Wallis painting one house is tiny compared to the others; Wallis stated that this was because the man who lived there had a small soul.

What do we mean by being in proportion? Artists like Durer spent hours and hours measuring the human body looking for the perfect set of proportions. However when reduced to an average somehow everything looks strange because we are more used to the reality of variation.

How do we use proportion and expectation of it to create meaning? An example is given of 1980s shoulder pads. By extending the expected dimensions of the shoulder emphasis is placed on a macho vision of the wide shouldered therefore dominant man.  (Or woman on the case of Margaret Thatcher). Clown shoes are always much too long, their very calculated proportions designed to trigger humour, similarly their expressions are exaggerated far beyond the normal; an effect that can create fear as much as laughter.

But what is being out of proportion morally or aesthetically? Can we create tension, unease or attention by making things badly out of proportion, or by developing proportions that change expectations? A painter might decide that a particular type of pink is vile, but then use it as a dominant colour, a portrait artist might exaggerate a small pimple to heighten a sense of imperfection in the subject, a sculpture may be given a much too large head or top weighted form, so that a sense of imbalance is maintained or to maintain a feeling of the imminent danger of falling over or as an audience being crushed if it fell.

We can lead a balanced, well proportioned life, it is also well known that partners are often selected on their rightness of proportion. This concept of proportion cuts through our moral view of the world, but how can it therefore be used to create new forms, break expectations and develop concepts about the world?

Students are asked to carry on transforming and making changes to their work.

One extra element is added and that is that any workshop they have now been inducted into is now also available as a place to work. Therefore new materials and working processes can be thought about and added as part of the transformation concept.

Students also had their first critical studies seminars today, so they were dipping in and out of the studio. Contextual studies, critical studies art history, supportive studies etc are all different approaches to the same problem and at some point I will address how and why this area has evolved and why I think some approaches are better than others, but that’s for another time.