Found Objects – Student Accommodation
For this task we were asked to find and create our own creative portrait pictures, however we were limited to develop these images from objects found and used within student’s accommodation. The theme that I had decided to set myself was ‘restoration’ as I felt there would be multiple items and shapes that I could explore with, as student accommodation is likely to have its fair share of damage or mess. Using this I had planned on developing broken objects into something new, whilst experimenting with light sources to see what outcomes I could create for an interesting image.
However I found something completely different on my task, which was a strong set of bronze cutlery and decorations with an Indonesian twist, bearing the moon on the incense burner. Due to their unique shape and colour I was drawn to use them for the task, adapting my original theme of restoration. To adapt this and incorporate these images within the theme, I created a small fire in the kettle and burner to bring it to life adding a third element to the picture. I feel that this ‘restored’ the object from something aesthetically pleasing to something of practical and symbolic use, restoring it to its original nature. For the background I had used a long brown sheet, with an ordinary desk lamp as a light source which enters the piece through the left hand side of the portrait. I had done this as I felt it would have created an interesting effect on the bronze metal creating a variety of unique shadows due to the range of patterns and holes that cover each of the objects.