Brutalist Art Project
Brutalist Art is “an architectural style characterized by a deliberate plainness, crudity, and transparency that can often be interpreted as austere and menacing” During Visual Art the project we worked on was inspired by this form of art.
We created small concrete statues to form a large city of brutalist “buildings”. The photo on the left shows the final design of everyone’s sculptures.
The Process
In the beginning, we started by researching different brutalist buildings around the world to understand what this art form really is. I learned and saw very interesting pictures and information from this task. When I first saw what this art form looked like I must admit I thought it was ugly.
After completing this we build 3 small lego structures that would be our final statues. I found this part to be the main creative part of the whole process. Then we decide on which of our 3 designs we thought were the most suitable and we rebuilt it. then we clayed the lego pieces that were hanging over the sides. This part was quite difficult as to get a good looking statue we must make sure the clay is very smooth.
After this, we started to build the walls of our moulds. This meant a lot of measuring and cutting. I collaborated with multiple people during this step to make sure our designs will be strong. After this step was one of the most frustrating parts. We needed to make sure our mould walls did not leak so that the Pinksil would stay inside the mould. We would seal as many holes as possible with hot glue and then test our mould by pouring water into it. I found that no matter how much glue you put there will always be a leak. A lot of problem-solving was used during this step.
After my mould was basically leakproof I measured and poured my Pinkisil. After leaving it to set I needed to pull out all of the lego pieces which was REALLY hard. I got people to help me but I ended up just cutting the mould to get the lego out. Then I poured concrete into my mould. Much experimenting was used when it came to the concrete. Ms Elscot found that the concrete that contain sand would make the sculptures crumble to pieces. Overall this process was very “fiddly”. I learnt new skills like how to make a mould and the steps commonly used to make sculpture.
My Final Product
My final product is the photo on the right. To get to this point there were many problems and challenges to overcome. One challenge was the air bubbles created in the concrete. I found that even after vigorously agitating my mould there were still many air bubbles in the statue. A positive of this project was I think that I was very productive during the visual art lessons. I ended up having many lessons to keep pouring more concrete statues. I am happy with the results of my brutalist art. Personally, I prefer more colour and textures in art but this project was still very fun and interesting.
All Of My Creations
In total, I made about 6 buildings. Interestingly every building looked slightly different. Whether it be the colour or the number of air bubbles.
Conclusion
Overall this project was very fun and I learned many new skills. I learnt how to make a mould and how to pour concrete. I used skills such as creativity, problem-solving, organisation and collaboration. I am proud of my final products.