For this week’s assignment, I wanted to keep it easy, breezy, beautiful. Faced with the seemingly infinite possibilities of creating a piece where two different materials were joined together, I decided to start with what I had on hand and just go from there. So i went to my handy dandy tool bag and dug out all the adhesives that had made the travelling team from Los Angeles, along with my sad bag of zip ties.
Then, wanting to stick with the “free” motif, I made a jaunty trek over to the shop to peruse the treasure trove that is the free-shelf/dumpster. In all of 34 seconds, I picked up three different materials, and by Jove, the muses granted me a lighting bolt of inspiration. I held Art in my hands:
Only two questions remained: What true form lay beneath these humble materials and how would I encourage them to cooperate and unlock their hidden beauty?
For the latter, I made a pilgrimage and consulted the all-knowing oracle, This to That, and lo and behold, I had known the answer within me all along. The answer is always Goop.
So I had a plan for the acrylic and plywood, but what of the ficklest member of this divine trio, the cardboard? What part would they play in this ménage à trois? I had considered laser cutting the acrylic to create slots or holes the cardboard could interact with, but a voice in my head warned me to not use mystery plastic in the laser cutter, and I obliged. Wanting to explore the cardboard’s natural features, I ran my fingers along their many-orificed edges and found myself thinking back to the zip ties. I would use the zip ties as a bolt and the cardboard as a giant sliding nut! I drilled the holes in the ply wood and delighted.
Then for the tricky task of joining the acrylic to the plywood with the Goop, I knew clamps would not help me, and I didn’t want to waste time on a jig or some other devilish device of stabilization. Once again drawing on my innate resources, I turned to my hurricane tape and decided to use it as an Olympic athlete might use joint tape. Why hurricane tape over any other tape, you ask? I was really digging using the stuff I had brought with me from L.A., and it ultimately was a perfect amount of support without sticking too much or leaving any residue. So using a natural brush (a flake of plywood veneer that had fallen off), I set to work on bringing together a more perfect union:
Then, channeling my inner mother-hen, I sat and waited for my creation to emerge triumphantly into existence… I went to Moma with my partner and found out that Duchamp had clearly used my idea as inspiration for one of his pieces. It was okay, but I think the arbiters of art history will smile kindlier on the better of the two (mine).
The next day, I excitedly returned and finished assembling my fabulous Frankenstein. I tried different orientations, eventually eschewing my initial brutish, vulgar design (cardboard in front, zip ties protruding) for a more coy, more exploratory approach (cardboard behind, zip tie “bolt-heads” in front). I also knew the correct orientation was to have the cardboard’s naturally exposed ridges grazing the back of the acrylic, symbolizing the teeth of God nibbling upon the human condition. This allowed the plywood to really shine, as I wanted to highlight the brave choice of the plywood to molt its veneer, emerging cicada-like into its new life as art masterpiece:
