On Thursdays this semester I have 3D Design, a class which is similar to sculpture (and has the same instructor) but work emphasizes space as much, or more than, form. We work particularly with biomorphic and asymmetrical shapes; exploring both hard and soft sculptures that work around space and create mood.

Our first project was to create a small Marquette park of our choosing. Even though it was a task not dissimilar from kindergarten Lincoln Logs, I did learn a bit about considering the space around the object as much as the form of the object itself. Being that we used blocks and wood pieces, it was not too tough to get a free standing piece that required only hot glue to hold together. My triumph over wood scraps was short lived however: we must now create a "Soft Sculpture"... That is a sculpture made using entirely soft material.

This really made me think for a long time... how was I going to create anything interesting without at least SOME hard material? All I could bring up in my imagination was a very boring -- though quite colorful -- pile of dirty laundry on the floor. Tonight was the night to talk with our instructor about the ideas we're having for the project. Thankfully I was not the only one who had no fucking idea what they were doing. After about 10 minutes of brainstorming and sketching random shapes and pieces in my sketchbook I decided to pitch my project to the instructor. Using some of the burlap material that she (the instructor) had provided, I was going to form a odd looking sand-worm creature. I started working on it with about an hour and a half left before I could leave the class; a problem which turned out to be in my favor.

The "problem" was that the only material I had was the burlap that was provided... I still required spools of twine and various other material just to work on my piece. So to kill time I grabbed some of the canvas that was also provided for us and began to cut it into small strips to tie around the tail end of the Burlap worm I was making. About 30 minutes in I had realized that this wasn't looking much like a worm and at all and was looking more like a long skinny piece of burlap wrapped in torn canvas. But, being the stubborn person that I am, I kept tieing the canvas on to this piece of burlap and progressively made it fatter and fatter as the burlap went on. An hour into this I realized that I was making a pretty badass looking bodybag with bandages wrapped around it! It was looking fucking CREEPY, and really really awesome.
So then I kept working on it as well as the concept... I am going to make the entire thing about 8ft long, 3ft wide at its widest point, and will have about a 5ft "tail" of thin burlap wrapped in the canvas pieces. I will be wrapping the bag, made entirely of burlap, with various pieces of canvas all over to give this bandaged up bodybag a really creepy look; then I will blotch red dye onto the bag and bandages to give a bloody look to it all. And to top it all off, I'm working with the instructor to see if I can have the whole thing hung from the ceiling!

Imagine: A 8ft long burlap bodybag covered in bloody looking bandages hanging from the ceiling pipes by a chain... so cool.

The whole thing is due in three weeks, but I'm not worried one bit about the time, as I'm quite sure I'll have everything done besides the blood by the end of next week. I'll be sure to take pics of the end product in three weeks.