Sunday, August 22, 2010

A tryst with materials and uncertainty

An inhibitive approach, a confused entrant in a lab filled with materials...

Wood, Plastic, Rubber, Paper...clips, pins, fevicol, scissors...

left over yarns, threads and spiral wires....A few months ago, I would have had goosebumps at the very thought of it...

I used to avoid making anything tangible...not that I could sketch it, but making it solid was beyond consideration...prototyping was equivalent to life imprisonment...bad skills at softwares was no propelling factor to even make an attempt at hand skills...

The catalyst to my daredevilry were a few extra curricular reasons where I finally decided to take the plunge... Being blessed with an interesting paraphernalia of materials in our lab at the institute, I ventured into models/forms/objects whatever term may be most appropriate...

And this is when I made my little discovery (for my own good that is) : the biggest success came my way when I had absolutely no clue as to what the outcome would be...I just experimented and explored, at times giving shape to a sensitivity that was earlier purely two dimensional. I learnt a lot during the process, the wonders of a pin here or a clip there, combining different media and techniques, color combinations, paints, ink, a fold here a cut there...It would be vain to say that the output was exceptional but would also be thoroughly unfair to undermine those attempts...

I have been able to overcome my fear and reluctance...

A few weeks post those experiments, we were to work with thermocol...I had always detested it and had never used it...but thanks to the earlier adventures I was open to it...We were to attempt at a preconceived form...but after that was the real learning...I sat peacefully in the night and filed some waste thermocol to reach a form that I had not even vaguely imagined when I started. The pressures of hand, the variations in sand paper, and above all the thoughts in mind while the hands move on a material...helped me reach a form that though mediocre if judged by a panel, for me did great justice to my newly acquired inquisitiveness.

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