Brutalist Architecture Project-Art 2022

In Visual Arts, Project X this term we were allocated a project to do with Brutalism and architecture. We learned about the meaning of brutalism, different artists and the colours and shapes that a brutalist building would usually have. We had to create our own sculpture of what we thought a brutalist building would look like with Lego.

The Process…

We first learned about buildings made with different brutalism architecture and where they were in the world, the artists that designed them and other details. I found this very interesting as I had never heard about brutalism architecture before.

We next were given the task of finding three brutalist buildings from Europe, Eastern States and Perth. This research part of the project, helped me further understand about brutalism and where each of the buildings were located. I was really surprised to hear that there was even brutalism architecture in Perth!

We were then given the choice of three different types of Lego to construct our mini building. We had to build three different test models from our understanding of brutalist architecture, a mini building or monument using our knowledge of brutalism. From here we would choose out of the three tests which one we wanted to create.

We then photographed each of the tests and decided which we were going to use to create our brutalist sculpture.

Once we had chosen our design we had to rebuild it and than using a palette knife, smooth come clay on all of the bottoms of the overhangs and the parts which weren’t on the bottom of the sculpture.

After adding the clay to our Lego, we had to measure the height and width of our artwork, while adding 2cm to give the Lego space between the walls using Corflute on a cutting mat, to protect the tables from being scratched. And to cut the Corflute we used a Stanley knife.

We next had to tape up our walls made of Corflute and glue them with our sculpture in the middle on a wooden board, with hot glue. We took several tests to make sure that there was no leak of our Pinkysil by testing it with water, until no water could escape.

Then we mixed part A and Part B Pinkysil together using our measurements of how much we needed, and poored it into our moulds quickly, as we only had around 6 minutes working time. And once we were done with that, we left it outside to dry.

After that we demoulded our Pinkysil, and took out all of the Lego so our mould was ready to be poured into.

We had to mix dry grey cement with water and mix it until all of the lumps were out and the consistency was watery. Then we were allowed to pour it into half of our mould, then agitate it and then again pour the rest into your mould and do another agitate to get rid of the air bubbles.

We lastly took out our sculpture carefully and used the Stanley knife if needed to cut the Pinkysil, and then reused our mould again.

Reflection…

Organised:

Did you meet targets throughout the project?

In the beginning, I had to stop and go back because we realised that each of our designs were taking up a lot of Pinkysil because of their size, so I had to redesign my sculpture, to be smaller. We also discovered through the design process that some of the different liquids/mediums that we were using to pour into our moulds were getting damaged or air could easily get to them. This is called ‘The Trial and Error Process.’ After that I realised I had a lot of overhangs so I had to change and adapt my design because they could easily break in the process. The overhangs also took up a lot of my time, because of how much clay I had to use.

Inquisitive:

How did you develop your design?

I developed my design from my research at the beginning of the project and used this knowledge of brutalism to help me create my own design.

Problem Solving:

What worked? What didn’t? How did you resolve issues with materials?

I was able to use my knowledge of brutalist architecture to create a sculpture. Some things that didn’t work were the measurements of the walls, as one of the sides the Lego had reached, so we had to top that up with some more Pinkysil.

Creative:

Final artwork? Reflection?

I found this project quite challenging and different. Being an artist I realised that you aren’t good at all styles and mediums. So this project helped me to recognise that maybe sculpturing isn’t my strength but painting is. Although I did enjoy trying something different while using ‘Trial and Error’ and I would love to do sculpturing another time again.

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