Digital Sketchbook-Micol Muratori

I am exploring the relationships between inner and outer self, the intertwining of interior and exterior by combining different surfaces and structures.   The wire structures represent both the interior scaffolding of the body and the restrictions of the self, given the similarity to the prison cell. Here I combined my glue experiments with the cage sculptures, which are both fluid.   

Taking inspiration from the painted figures, I created a paper-mached wire sculpture that I will incorporate in the final installation. I did this through a single piece of long wire, folding it and remodelling it until I achieved a satisfying shape. The shape was transformed into a more abstract figure.    Composition trials with light and shadow Separate pieces: Combined pieces compositions experiments: Light inside: Figure inside the cage and inside the shadow shapes: Lighting from behind: Seated figure: Horizontal shape: Installation and lighting experiments:

Using PVA glue as surface for abstract compositions  Placing different materials – papers, strings- on the wet glue to create chance compositions. The final effect, once the glue is dry is always different from when it was wet. The transparent and lucid quality of the glue reminds me of digital surfaces, but also the possibility to display these pieces as sculptural objects to look "through". I also painted on the glue while it was still wet: Here the final effect creates similar textures to the ones achieved previously on tissue paper. I see these pieces as expressive of time, decay and fluidity.

Idea for installation piece: hanging cut-out bodies similar to hanging meat   I am exploring contrasts of weight usually associated to the physical body and lightness and fragility of the paper which moves in space when someone goes near it.   This also reflects the concept of the weight of existence contrasted to the weightlessness of values of the contemporary human being (see Bauman, Z. 1999, ‘Liquid Modernity’). I made body figures represented in crouching poses, using different coloured tissue papers. I added pieces of string from the bodies touching the ground to link body and ground.

Acrylic paint on tissue paper

Organic shapes and fruit decay I took inspiration from rotten fruits (peaches and clementines) to explore textures and the changing materiality   Here I made a cage which looks as if it is melting- it suggests decay although the object depicted is not a living/organic being.   Trough digital manipulation I then combined the drawing of the melting cage with photographs of the shadows from the cage sculpture which looked really similar. Decaying surfaces and skin layers  Layers shown through crevices and semi-transparent papers.   Significance of layers: open wounds - which connect the interiority to the exterior.

Why are we so obsessed with concealing our bodily imperfections? I explored the fragility of the body through concealment, visibility and invisibility- through the blending of figure and background - and the use of fragile or ruined material.   Here I used a ripped plastic bag to conceal part of painted figures and added some paper coming out of the concealed part. 

I have been projecting shadows from sculptural pieces in order to create possible backgrounds for my figure drawings