The memory I had that I wanted to portray was moving from my hometown (as much as I have a hometown) of Vancouver to my new permanent (as much as a place is permanent for me) residence of Daytona Beach. We were on the plane, just before take off, when I spotted a snowflake on the plane window. I watched it throughout take-off until it finally melted a few thousand feet off the ground. The image of the snowflake in my mind has become symbolic of that day for me.
I used wire, glass, and glue to construct this piece. I chose the wire not only to act as an armature but also as something that would be sharp, spiky, and somewhat difficult to hold, because a snowflake is difficult to hold, as well. I chose to purposefully not make the armature even or symmetrical because I didn't want to literally evoke a snowflake. I also wanted to communicate that although I remember that moment very well in my mind, there is no way I could possibly commit to memory the intricate patterns of that particular snowflake, so I wanted to exaggerate that shortcoming of the human capacity for memory by emphasising the sculpture's imperfection through asymmetry. I also had a choice of colour for the wire that I used. I chose this particular wire partially because it seemed more workable but also sturdier than most of my other choices, but I also purposefully chose a warm colour rather than the option of blue, silver, or even purple wire to communicate the tension of a melting snowflake. Something that represents ice, when it is seen as being cold or being in a cold environment, seems more stable and less ephemeral. When something cold is seen in a warm environment, we know that it is not going to last. In this sense, the choice of yellow wire is more meaningful once you understand that the sculpture is representative of the memory of watching a snowflake melt.
I chose glass not only because crushed glass looks a lot like ice, but also for the same reason as my choice of wire: because it would be sharp and dangerous-looking and would make the viewer not want to, or maybe not even able to, hold the piece. The glass was also very difficult to adhere to the wire armature, which makes the piece very fragile. Again, much like a real snowflake, and much like memories themselves.
I originally intended for the glue to be more visible than it ended up being, because I wanted the sculptural snowflake to appear as if it were melting as the viewer 'watched' it. I thought there would be more obvious drips and coatings of glue, but most of it sunk into the gaps between glass pieces and stayed very close to the wire, so it is not as obvious.
In Progress Photos:
Again, I'm really bad at remembering to take these, so most of these were taken when the piece was near-complete. Basically, though, once I had created the armature, I place the piece on a sheet of tinfoil, poured glue on it, and started to shower it with glass shards. I had to do this in several sessions because the glue had to dry before I could rotate the armature to add glass from another angle. I kept pouring glue and glass, waiting for it to dry, and then rotating it. Gluing it, letting it dry, turning it. Because of the reflective nature of my work surface and the multitude of crushed glass, it's kind of hard to see my piece in the pictures.
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