Development of Sculpture With Organic Form: an Exploration With Calabash for the Exterior Space
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The objective of the research is: to create free standing sculpture with whole gourds so as to accentuate the variety of forms inherent in the medium, in an attempt to establish calabash as a viable sculptural medium.
- The researcher will through exhibition of the research work rejuvenate appreciation for calabash from the public.
- To stretch the context of the use of calabash to such limit of being placed outdoors.
- To evoke a consciousness in the minds of government and policy makers on the need to formulate policies that promote Nigeria cultural relics.
- The researcher is focused on exploration with various calabash forms for display outdoors with a view to reviving a public appreciation for the medium.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter deals with the review of some relevant literature, especially as it concerns the environments, functionality and media of the array of works in this study. From the Stone Age to the present day, the use of sculpture reveals a history of multitude of functions. Whether enclosed within an architectural space, attached or free standing in the open air; Ogundipe (1988) states that “sculpture, from the pre-historic time has been executed to enhance the environment”.
According to Peterson (1997) ‘that environment thus including social, physical and metaphysical world of man’s state of being is in line with his many expedition”. Duchamp (1950) argues that creativity develops from exploring, experimenting, and the believe that you will better understand the possibilities inherent in a material if you see how human hands shapes them. Oldenburg (1976) concurred that one can transform everyday objects into art. He developed sculptural forms from common household object such as clothespin blown to an enormous scale. At such a gigantic size, these items appear both comical and frightening. He adds that the expansion celebrates the forms of the commonplace object and changes it into something surprisingly different. He explores and recognized the mysterious nature of everyday reality that no one had thought to be art.
Nevelson in Buser (2006) disagrees with Oldenburg. In her opinion, intuitively arranged found pieces in boxes stacked on top one another will make the solid shapes in the box both stand out from the far surface and sink into the shadowy depth of the box. The paradoxes of utilitarian objects and intuitive design, of regularity and irregularity in the design, with rich array of masses and dark voids, made Nevelson’s work appear mysterious like the indecipherable hieroglyphs on the walls of an ancient ruin.
Both the outline of a shape and the surface of a form carry messages. Artists often use free-form shapes and forms to symbolize living things. When they want to please and soothe viewers, they use shapes and forms with smooth curved outlines and surfaces that tempt us to touch them. When you see a certain shape or form in a work of art, you may think of an object from real life. Any feeling you have about the object will affect your feeling about the artistic work. Artists use this relationship between art and the environment to communicate to you.
Pfaff (2003) looks at it from another angle, that sculptures can be made to transform the whole of an interior space to create an environment into which the viewer enters and moves and which then surrounds the viewer on all sides. In her work Neither Here Nor There, the viewer becomes part of the art work.
The direction of this research is however, to examine how the inherent properties in an organic medium can enhance its proper utilization, which is rear. Few artists like Petah Coyne developed a personal style in sculpture in which she suspended large scale masses of organic material such as tree branches, hay, and mud from the ceiling of a gallery or museum.
Coyne (1953) affirms that ‘working intuitively on each piece without preliminary drawing or clay models, just tied, wrapped and bound the material together with clay and mud is fun. “Branches and twigs often project from the mass like tentacles’. Her work challenges our expectation of sculpture because they are made from impermanent material, which in fact will disintegrate and rot, and also because the masses defy gravity. Instead of resting securely on the floor like ordinary sculpture, they are suspended. The air around them seems to be sustaining their growth; these enchanted creatures from some fairy tale are weighty yet seem fragile and vulnerable in space.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
The body of work in this research was carried out in the studio. However, several information about calabash that were gotten via the internet, book and journals turned out to be most helpful to the researcher. Exploring different arrangements of calabash has in a way sharpen the perception of the researcher in creating composition in space; noticing how tension develops between flat and curved shape, how jagged forms and soft forms suggest different kinds of feelings.
Idea- Inspired by the few artist who have successfully worked with organic medium for outdoor sculptures regardless of the durability of such a medium to withstand the constant change in weather and temperature in the face of the present global warming.
The researcher studied works of scholars like Abdulrasaq Yusuf, Onyishi Uche, Kimio Tsuchiya, Petah Coyne, Magdalena Abakanowiez and so on. Ultimately that motivated the need for researcher to explore calabash as a medium that is common place yet, which has potentials that has not been fully exploited and utilized for sculpture.
The recent passing away of an African hero, one time south- African president, Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela became a eureka factor. The late hero has so many attributes that are similar to calabash for instance Longevity, cross-cultural influence, humility and lots more.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS:
ABACUS
This project piece intends to bring back calabash onto the landscape after many years of public neglect as household or industrial item. Such prevailing character can also be attributed to Nelson Mandela who’s portrait the work bears. Mandela after many years
of incarceration did not only walk as a freeman, he rose to become the first black president of the most popular apartheid nation in the world.
Calabash has been used for multiple of function; however, this researcher is stretching the limits in a bid to find new probabilities for the medium by placing it outdoor. Since this work is an impression, it is not expected that everyone should identify Mandela because it will take a forensic scientist to do so. But as a lay man or one who has just a peripheral interest in arts it will be possible to identify the silhouette of a human head in three quarter view that emerges from the scattered forms. Now! That is the Eureka moment. The point where the viewer has found out for himself what impression is behind the art.
In this chapter, the analysis of the main project is born out of exploring the character of the calabash as it relates to some social phenomenon that affect our views of life.
When several dynamic forms spring from base and their variously directed extensions are assembled, they create compound forms with compound surfaces which may either be virtual or tactile.
CHAPTER FIVE
Myth and Fables around the Calabash.
African societies are known for the close rich family values, enshrined in folklore, proverbs and stories which add up to make their unique social system. The words of our elders, they say, are words of wisdom. The calabash in many instances is used to either lock or unlock these words. For instance, Anansi in Ghanaian myth is an epitome of wisdom. In one popular myth, on Ashanti tale by Verna Aardama. ‘To catch the hornet, Anansi filled a calabash with water and poured some over a banana leaf he held over his head and some over the nest, calling out that it was raining. He suggested, the hornets get into the empty calabash and when they obliged, he quickly sealed the opening. Anansi handed his captives over to Nyame. Nyame then rewarded him with stories, which now became known as Anansi stories or Anansesem.
In ‘A calabash of ‘poi’ where Pele, the goddess of fire, hospitality, kindness and rewards, blessed the poor family after being welcomed with three calabash of ‘poi’ as against the rich family which she coursed for being stingy. The blessing pronounced on the poor beneficiaries went thus: Thorpe (1924)
When your neighbour plant taro, it shall wither upon its stem. His bananas shall hang as green fingers upon the stalk, and the cocoanuts shall fall upon his favorite pig. When you plant taro at night, you may pull it in the morning. Your cane shall mature overnight and your bananas ripen in one days sunshine. You may have as many calabashes of crops as there are days in the year!(p96) Saying these words, Pele trudged out of the gate as she disappeared toward Ha-le-mau-mau in a cloud of flame.
In the book Yoruba Myths on how Obatala lost the calabash of good character by Beier (1980). “The tether does not enter the ground easily. He pronounces the oracle for Obatala, on the day he and Oduduwa entered the world” (p82). On that day they went to Olodumare, to obtain the calabash of good character. Olodumare then taught Obatala how to create human beings and animals which is greater than anything else. One day, Obatala got drunk on palm wine. On that day he made albinos, hunchbacks, blind people and lame people. Since then they live in his shrine but Obtatala has abstained from palm wine ever since and his devotees are also forbidden to drink palm wine. So they broke all their calabashes.
Similar Stories like these were also written in “The Calabash of Wisdom and other Igbo Stories” collected and translated by Romanus N. Egudu. In this queue, are many young talented African writers like Helon Habila, chimamanda Adechi and others who have perfected the art of creative writing.
Proverb however ancient has always remained fresh when it is used. With sayings like “mouth to mouth we kiss the calabash as homage to the wine that binds us”. This quote is a toast to friendship that is made popular in Burkutu drinking ‘joints’ in north eastern Nigeria.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CONCLUSION
When we use words like into, under, around, behind or surrounding, we are speaking of three-dimensional space. This ‘3D’ realm includes solidity, volume and mass. Yet aside the object the surrounding, or negative space is integral. That space is a vital part of the object itself.
We are not often conscious of the space surrounding solid objects, especially if that space seems unlimited. But when it is contained, we became acutely aware of it, as in filled with smog, dust, smoke or fog.
It is the unique shapes of the calabash that allow something different to happen in one space vis-à-vis what’s happening outside of the space. It can transcend its space and permeate into our senses of fascination that reminds us of the contours and flows of the human body. It is even more interesting in that, a particular sculptural problem is solved. That the vessel has a ‘skin’ that our vision stops at, and it also has an orifice or an entry into that space which immediately reveals the thickness of the rind, its is quite unlike bronze or marble.
A far broader range of media are available, permitting work that is experimental in the broadest sense. Which I believe is an opportunity for artist to work on a huge scale, or to create using materials not usually associated with conventional art classes. Either way, it is not an impressive array of art materials that matters but, the experience of creating in the context of a safe, therapeutic relationship between man, material and environment.
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