Hybrid Forms

🎎⛩

Hybrid Forms: Idea Generation

伝

統

tradition

The starting point for my project ‘Hybrid Forms’ was the Japanese kanji alphabet. From the beginning I decided to limit down to one character or word as the kanji alphabet is massive so looking at the whole thing would be completely overwhelming. I decided on the Kanji for ‘tradition’ after coming back from a trip to Japan. I witnessed a beautiful combination of tradition and modernity. An appreciation for their history and culture without turning a blind eye to development and urbanisation. It was really interesting and something I hadn’t seen in any other country I had visited before. I decided to develop from 伝統 and create something modern or that discusses issues we face today to capture this combination of the present and the past that I experienced.

Hybrid Forms : Idea Development

Creating the Kanji for ‘tradition’

To start developing ideas I decided to create 伝統 using paper straws and toothpicks I then jumbled up the forms to create new, abstract shapes and forms.

Decorative hanging dolls used for the Hina festival

Hina dolls displayed on the 118 steps at Izu-Inatori

When thinking about how I could develop these forms into 3D I thought back to my time in Japan for inspiration. At the time I was there the Hinamatsumori festival has just passed. This is a day celebrating girls it is celebrated on 3 March of each year, platforms covered with a red carpet-material are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. There are also mobiles with hanging plush dolls in the forms of animals can be seen almost everywhere you go. I decided to take inspiration from the hanging dolls can create a mobile inspired sculpture using the straws as the charms.

Above is the outcome of this experiment. Although it is interesting and connects well to the culture and the characters I used as a starting point I do not like it. I feel it is not my style at all and doesn’t have any of my personality in it. It is just something created for the sake of for filling a brief so it is avid of all passion. I want to start again.

space

Hybrid Forms : Idea Generation

Fig 5: an illustration showing the meaning behind different Kanji

Hybrid Forms : Primary Research

I decided to look more into the history of kanji and how their forms are created. They are very pictorial and have been developed over time from what the meaning of the character looks like, and some of them still look rather similar today. For instance the cases above – this diagram shows the development of six different Kanji from its origin to its appearance now.

The Higashi-Tenno Okazaki-Jinja Shrine 

A sculpture at the shrine

To make sure I didn’t lose my passion and interest in the project’s development I decided to once again think back to my time in Japan, of one of my favourite places I visited. Originally people regarded the Higashi-Tenno Okazaki-Jinja Shrine ‘as important for protecting the emperor, his court, and its citizenry. At the same time, it has also been famous for granting blessings for having children and their safe delivery. Also because of a Japanese mythology hero, this deity shrine was said to be a place that blesses marriages, and therefore, many couples chose this location for their wedding ceremony every year.’ – K.K.G Project (2019). This shrine is awash with rabbits! From statues to lanterns to plaques it is a really beautiful and unique shrine. I loved this place so much because rabbits are an important animal to me an my family – we all love them and my very first pets were rabbits. I want to take an idea from the essence of this shrine and find a way to convey it in my work. This way I will remain excited and motivated to create something amazing so that I may have a way to remember this experience for a long time.

Whilst I was in Japan I started to notice this culture of giving and giving back. An example of this is when I was at the shrine, people would buy these small rabbits, receive their fortune then leave them on a gate at the shrine for others to enjoy and for the essence of the god inside them to return home. I thought this was so wonderful. In England we do not have this kind of culture - we are very focused on possession and permanence. Once we buy or claim something we see it as ours until we have no purpose for it any longer. Very rarely do we give for the sake of giving.

I admire this culture of giving the Japanese have and thought I could take inspiration from this when developing ideas for this project.

Hybrid Forms: Artist Research – Sarah Lucas

For inspiration as to how I should approach my outcome I looked I looked at the work of Sarah Lucas and her soft sculpture series that looks at (a different kind of) bunnies. Sarah Lucas’ soft sculptures are fantastic. They are so simple but carry so much meaning and personality.  To create her sculptures Sarah lucas uses nude tights. Using tights as a way to create my outcome could be very effective. They are easy to create 3D forms with and simple to decorate and embellish. However, using too many could end up becoming quite expensive so maybe using cheaper, childrens tights and working smaller could be a way around this.

Hybrid Forms: Idea Development and Experimentation

Experimenting with shape and form, distorting the kanji to its meaning.

To begin developing my ideas I decided to start working in 3D straight away, to make sure I can keep my mind thinking this way. I thought back to my research into how Kanji came to be and decided to transform the kanji for rabbit (兎) into a rabbit by only manipulating the forms already present. I found this technique very rewarding as I was able to draw a clear connection from my alphabet to my source of inspiration. I am glad I decided to start this project again from a new route as I could already feel my excitement returning to me.

Knitting Experimentation

Knitting experiment with different materials as the yarn

To develop my ideas further I decided to begin experimenting with different materials. Something I really enjoy working with is knitting and fabric. It's a really great way to create 3D outcomes easily. It allows for the addition of loads of different textures and materials and the outcome created usually isn't so fragile that I would have to worry about it breaking. This is a knitting sample I created using yarn and ribbon. The colours are inspired by colours I saw on kimono as I walked through the streets of Kyoto. After creating this piece and thinking back to the work of Sarah Lucas I decided that, going forward, I want to create a soft-sculpture final outcome. It is something that I am very  interested in but something that I haven’t been able to explore often.

Response to Sarah Lucas

In response to the work of Sarah Lucas I experimented with different ways of creating rabbits using gray and white coloured tights. I found working with tights as a material very fun and a little challenging. I had to take into consideration the construction of the tights and find out how best to use it to my advantage. To stuff the rabbits I used a simple synthetic stuffing.

The order in which they were created goes from left to right, I found that the more complex I tried to make the construction the less good the rabbit looked. The design I like best is not surprisingly the one I created last (far right) however I will be developing this design further by introducing sewn, embellished aspects rather than drawn, to make it look higher quality.

After experimenting with many different methods  of creating a rabbit using tights I decided on this way. The construction requires no sewing apart from when creating the face so is very quick and simple. As I am working small I decided to work in a large quantity instead. I feel working with quantity of size captures the essence of the shrine I was inspired by better as although it was a small, quiet space. It was so full of many depictions of rabbits!

Although, even though my work has a connection to my personal experience of Japan, I want to push it further. I want to find a way to connect it to the culture and traditions I witnessed. Thinking back to my time in Japan and my visit to the shrine I decided I wanted to do this by promoting a culture of giving with the rabbits. Giving them out to friends, acquaintances and strangers 

Hybrid Forms : Final Outcome

To promote this idea of giving I decided that I would be giving away  the rabbits I made to friends, acquaintances and strangers. 

However, I didn’t want the giving to end there. I tied instructions to their ears that said. ‘Take a picture of me then pass me on’ and  on the other side I gave instructions to post the picture to instagram with tags: @giving_rabbits and #givingrabbits

I did this in hopes that by starting an instagram page to track the journeys of the rabbits, I can create something more fun and interactive. Something that my audience will want to get involved in. This means I will also be able to see and collect the images posted by each person through @giving_rabbits and hopefully form a gallery of where they go.

As the brief requires a 360° view of the outcome I used the highlights section of the instagram page to my advantage. I took short GIF-like videos of the rabbits in both urban and natural environments that together create a 360° view of what one of the rabbits would look like. Above are screenshots from the GIFs showing what I mean. This contributed to the project as not only does it introduce each rabbit as an individual, but it also gives some inspiration to the people who receive the rabbits about how their pictures can look.

To see the videos go to my instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/giving_rabbits/ and press the highlight titled ‘the rabbits’

Evaluation

Considering everything I went through to get to the final outcome of this project, I am very happy with how it turned out, which is not something I would have been expecting to say mid-way through this project. I was very nervous after the briefing as typography is not something I have ever really been inspired by. 

I have never produced something like this before. My outcome are usually quite surface and have an ‘end’. With this outcome that is not the case - it is something that can grow and develop even after my submission. My ultimate dream for this project, although very unlikely, is that it becomes something of a trend or something that people can get excited for and talk about. I also hope that even if it does not become something well known that it does what it was made for, to promote giving. Even if it makes an impact on just one person, get them addicted to the warm feeling you get when you make someone else happy, I will count it as a success. Another  reason I am so proud of this outcome is that I think I have shown a resilience that I have never shown before usually, if I get into a slump when producing work for a school brief I am unable to recover from it and the work I produce suffers. However, after producing the initial outcome I didn’t like I pushed myself really hard to find something I wanted to work with. Something that excited me. I did this through experimentation, mind mapping and listing. So, not only am I proud of my outcome being unlike anything I have produced before but I am proud of it because it came from a struggle and a fight to get it to the level it is now.

To conclude, although it was a struggle, I am very happy what what my project has become. It has become something I never predicted it being, as it is something I have never done before. I have hopes that this project will become something that can inspire good in others through giving and that it will continue long after my submission.