Khalil Chishtee

'Chishtee's trash bag creations resemble a mix of a Giacometti sculpture, a form from Body Worlds and, perhaps, a mythical swamp creature. Ranging from playful to haunting, Chishtee's plastic bag army make us excited to recycle, reuse and renew.'

(http://hifructose.com/2013/01/10/khalil-chishtees-beautifully-fragile-plastic-bag-sculptures/)

“Collector,” black and white trash bags

“The Unbearable Lightness of Being,”

“We live in the age of plastic, and plastic bags are the most ordinary form of this material. It goes back to the Sufi approach of my upbringing where worth does not depend on what you inherit, it depends on who you are. Anything made out of bronze, wood, stone or painted on a canvas carries the appearance of being worth looking at, because of its history, but if one can change the impact of that history, one is an artist."  

Chishtee, a Pakistani artist, takes an overlooked and unwanted material (the plastic shopping bag) and creates sinister, expressive, life sized human figure sculptures that illustrate feelings of sorrow, dejection and victimhood. Some of these figures are quite life like whilst others appear very vague or supernatural, with angels wings or altered limbs.
I particularly like the rough torn up edges of the bags, which add a sense of fragility to the forms, magnifying their captivating beauty. An aspect that I feel adds to this beauty is the flowing forms of the sculptures, which create a dynamic fluid scene before our eyes (particularly in 'the unbearable lightness of being') which provokes me to compare the form to a ballet dancer.

I feel that the use of plastic bags in this work, supported by the quote above and my research (found in my research folder) could make a statement on how we recycle our personalities. Chishtee mentions how worth depends on who you are, suggesting he believes we should all be ourselves and be good people to be worth something, not following the crowd and copying everyone else. A plastic bag is a mass produced product, and so maybe he is suggesting that us humans are becoming mass produced, we have become merely plastic copies of other people, losing our own unique features and identities. This metaphor on life makes the piece all the more engaging.
Chishtee regards a plastic bag in the same way that Mark James and Joshua Allen Harris do. They all consider this material overlooked and unwanted, and so strive to explore what the material can do and make use of the emotions it can provoke.

Another aspect of Chishtees work that appeals to me is the sense of sadness the pieces can instill on the viewers. The shredded withering figures appear to have given up hope, as if they're struggling through life.
This is an effect that I would like to try and create by making a model of a flood victim. I will explore how I can use plastic bags and perhaps other relevant overlooked and unwanted materials to create a serious yet enigmatic aesthetic that portrays the sorrow and victimhood of these people.

Bin bag experiment

Leading on from my experiment inspired by Joshua Allen Harris, i decided to try and make a character with a bin bag like he does, however without the need of inflation. I stuffed the character with newspaper to give it a rag doll feel, and to give it a core of stories and memories from both the past and present. I felt this element could add life to the character, much like the air from the subway vents give life to Harris's characters. I also felt that creating a person out of a bin bag could reflect how the flood victims have to pack their lives into plastic bags as a form of protection. The bin bag represents an overlooked form of safety that they have, and the fact that these victims have to make do with what they've got as they now have limited materials to work with due to the destruction caused by the floods.
I used wooden skewers to support the body, however I would have liked to have used wire as I would then have been able to shape the character and give it an extra sense of life.

Here I explored the theme of floods. This is a major contemporary issue, and so felt this small experiment could make statements about the floods. For example the black dull character represents the people effected, and how they have become almost like lifeless robots having to try and keep the water at bay day by day. There isn't much they can do to help themselves as the government have all the control, and they are left fending for themselves. The blackness can represent the great depression caused by the floods. The fact that the model is made of a bin bag suggests the notion of having to make do with what you've got, and use the materials that are available to you. The fact that the bag is stuffed with newspaper stories represents how the victims have had to pack their lives into bin bags as a final attempt at protecting what they have left. The pieces of newspaper seeping through the bag can suggest the manor in which the flood water seeps through any holes it can find, although on a deeper level can suggest how these peoples lives have just become a story that we watch on the news, or how they are losing valuable pieces of themselves, such as homes/belongings full of personal memories. 
I feel that these connotations have made a visually interesting, effective, thought provoking outcome. Therefore I am going to develop this further, exploring the scale and materials.

Experiments

 I started with a Joshua Allen Harris inspired experiment. I cut a bin bag to a shape linking to a contemporary issue, as one of the words my project is based on is 'contemporary'. The issue I chose was the smoking ban inside cars, and so I decided to create flames.

 I stuck all the edges together with sellotape ensuring there were no holes for air to escape through.

 When testing this idea I used a hairdryer to inflate the bag. This was successful however if the hairdryer was on a high heat, the bag then began melting.

I found that when the air couldn't escape from the bag, this then overheated the hairdryer and prevented it from working, and so this wouldn't be a practical way of inflating the bag. 
If I were to develop this idea I would need to find an alternative method of inflating the bag, such as a fan (which would enable the air to escape when it needs to) or a vent.

Mark James

Like Joshua Allen Harris, Mark James uses bin bags as his dominant material, also making statements about certain themes. However he does this in a more graphical design based way.

This started when he left a scrunched up bin bag on his desk, which began to unravel itself in a dynamic and intriguing way. James decided to film this, soon becoming obsessed with the flowing movement that came from such a mundane material.

This made me wonder whether the artist is responsible for creating something dynamic and visually interesting with such a simple static material, or whether the material already has these qualities but they are overlooked, and the artist just highlights them.

 

These pieces were made for musician Cian Ciaran's album, which is described as a protest record targeting oil companies and 'political villains'. The above design (the kaleidoscopic collage) is shaped to look like a skull and includes images referencing the records key themes.

Firstly, I found the kaleidoscope shape very interesting. It could represent how we all have a different view on things, and the world is a diverse place portrayed differently in each individuals mind. However there are patterns found in all our views, maybe because of the environment we are brought up in.

 

On the other hand the message could be a lot more negative, it could suggest that society only sees things through a distorted view as the government and politicians are constantly manipulating people and situations, trying to make us see what they want to see so they can gain complete control.

It may be suggesting that no one ever realises the full extent of what is going on with the world or even the universe, as the centre of the design looks quite astronomical. The centre could also represent the centre of the earth, with the dark and eerie blackness of the bag engulfing it in an almost suffocating way. This could be making a statement on how we are wrecking the earth with our selfish needs for more oil, energy, money, etc. The skull only adds to this dark and meaningful message, representing negativity in the form of death, terror, and inevitable doom.

Maybe this collage shows how dark and ruined the earth will become if we carry on like this, or maybe this is opening our eyes to how the earth already is.

However there is something strangely beautiful in the intimidating forms of the bin bag. Although the black tone delivers a dead aesthetic, the flowing form of the bin bag injects movement and life to the design, creating a small juxtaposition that could be making a statement in itself. The fact that the raw material is merely a bin bag also juxtaposes the beautiful outcome. This is much like what Joshua Allen Harris does in his work: he takes a boring old bin bag and turns it into something beautiful, showing that beauty can be found anywhere.

 

Both artists have achieved a very similar effect from their dominant material, but using different processes. I feel Harris takes it a step further than James as he clearly shows the material in its overlooked state to begin with, before it develops into its beautiful state. I think this makes the viewer feel more as they can see the whole process involved and feel a part of it. However James's work holds a unique power within itself as the viewer may not realise straight away (or at all) that the material is a bin bag. This discovery can be intriguing and very thought provoking, as viewers will start questioning why a bin bag has been used and what this means. I am going to experiment with the method used by each artist to see which is most effective and successful for me personally.

 

I like how this extremely intriguing yet scary world that James has created catches the eye and draws viewers in through its claustrophobic, gloomy, moody, yet strangely beautiful atmosphere and aesthetic. It seems that the longer you look at it, the more you see, and so it easily holds the attention of the viewer. This makes the work very enigmatic, prompting the viewer to try and interpret everything they see, and explore further and further into its engaging world of depth.

For me personally, it made me wonder whether there were any hidden messages within the design, as the dark aesthetic doesn't suggest the piece is particularly innocent! Therefore I kept exploring the piece for hidden themes and messages, and guessing at what different things could mean, further engaging me. The design is practically asking to be explored.

 

Looking at this artist has given me many ideas involving creating imagery with a bin bag. I could also use other everyday overlooked objects as my main material, such as shopping bags, wrappers, newspapers, and magazines. I could link this to contemporary issues, maybe posing questions through my work or making statements.

Joshua Allen Harris

 

I found this artists work fascinating as he uses an often overlooked contemporary object to create pieces of art. At a first glance his work looks like a pile of rubbish discarded in the street, however one strong gust from the subway beneath brings the material to life, the air inflating it into a beautiful character. This then deflates again as the air leaves its body, as if the life is being sucked from the character as it deflates. I feel this could be a statement on life and death.

On the outside this cycle of magical inflation followed by deflation appears to represent the life and death of the character. However looking at the cycle in more depth reveals a lot more connotations.

The cycle could represent the ups and downs of life- it is often described as a rollercoaster and so this could be a personification of the highs and lows we face. Although the sculpture continues to deflate time after time, it also continues to inflate again, maybe to show we can bounce back from anything, but we must get through the lows of life to reach the highs.

 

 Another connotation particularly found in Harris's polar bear piece is its vital commentary on global warming. The viewers watch the magical and exciting process of the bear being brought to life, only to be followed by it tragically melting to the ground, inevitably dying over and over again. The bear is first overlooked but the harsh reality of the situation hits as viewers witness an engaging animation that provokes them to consider the effects of global warming.

 

I find it fascinating how this overlooked every day object turns into something beautiful and magical. This juxtaposition could be a statement on how we pre-judge everything around us, how things may not immediately appear interesting or beautiful but this doesn't reflect what they truly are. Things can always blossom or improve, there is beauty to be found in everything. The piece questions whether beauty can be salvaged from unusual and un-thought of places, materials, and situations.

 

I think the cycle of life and death portrayed could question whether our life and death is completely random or planned. Is it down to fate when a train passes in the subway beneath to inflate the character, or is it planned because the train times are planned? Does the air leave the character randomly or is there a particular process to it? Is the life and death of the characters planned because the artist intentionally placed them into the cycle or is it random because he doesn't know when they will become inflated and deflated? This all links to our own lives, adding another level of depth to the artwork.

 

It is this depth that comes from such an aesthetically engaging piece that draws in a diverse range of viewers. The work causes a whole range of emotions, such as confusion, joy, astonishment, fear, shock, excitement, sadness, guilt, realisation, humour, interest etc. The effects are individual to each person depending on how they perceive the work, allowing it to become more personal to them, which then sparks a small connection between the viewers and the artist. This leads me to think maybe the reactions of the public could be recorded and explored.

 

Another thing I like about the work of Joshua Allen Harris is the fact that his work is very contemporary, holding many lessons and stories. I feel it speaks for the need of support and reinforcement in the creative process. Through my research I found that Harris worked on the initial ideas of these projects for quite some time however began to lose interest. As he moved onto exploring new ideas, the power of the internet intervened. The public were becoming inspired by Harris's work, posting photos and videos online which then spread worldwide. All of a sudden, thanks to contemporary technology there was a renewed interest in this particular project on a monumental scale. This made me wonder whether Harris's work would have gained the same success before the internet was invented- maybe this form of modern technology is the key to his breakthrough in the world of art. The story also reinforces the idea that support and reinforcement are needed in the creative process, physically and mentally. Artists need encouragement sometimes and so the response from viewers on the internet played a huge part in Harris's success. However in a more physical sense, support and reinforcement were needed to make the characters work. The gusts of air from the subway vents supported the flimsy material of the plastic bags giving them the reinforcement they needed to come to life and form their true shapes.

 

Exploring this work has led to me wanting to create my own inflatable plastic bag characters. I am going to experiment with this process on a smaller scale to see if I can gain the same effect as Harris, possibly developing this into making a statement or raising questions as he does.

 

 

 

 

Starting Point: Research

I decided to follow on slightly from my project on Chaos and order, and explore the words manipulation and contemporary. I started by researching materials that I could easily manipulate, and ways of manipulating them. I found that The 3 types of polyethylene (LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE) would be suitable materials as they are very commonly found in everyday objects, and so it is cheap and easy to get hold of. One of the everyday objects made of polyethylene is bin bags, and so this led me on to research an artist I had heard about who makes sculptures using inflated bin bags.