Foundation Material and Making

The course is divided into five parts and you’ll explore a range of topics and complete exercises for each.

Part One:

Assemble, aims to initiate you into the act of collecting together materials from your immediate environment and make an ‘assemblage’ of ideas. The importance of each object and the way it locates itself is key to the beginning of this part. Artists today have an unlimited range of materials and objects to make work with. There are many tools and methods you can use and these exercises will help you relax into using and discovering potential around you.

Part Two:

Modular, looks at the work of Tara Donovan, David Mack and Shirazeh Houshiary. You are asked to make a free-standing sculpture that uses an easily available module (e.g paper clip, cereal box, coat hanger) that can be obtained in abundance and use the act of repetition to initiate and maintain a process of making.

Part Three:

Tension, considers the relationship between objects and space, creating a range of works that explore gravity and balance. Artists that inform this topic include Roman Signer, Fischli and Weiss and Alexander Calder. This approach to making considers these materials as part of a collage and aims to stretch the imaginative outcomes and undermine the preconceived.

Part Four:

Scale, involves making substantial work from small beginnings. Looking at the work of artists using different scales in a variety of contexts, you will develop observational skills and consider where to locate your work and how to install it.

Part Five:

Shaping, looks at the work of Gabriel Orozco 'From my hands are my heart', this final part aims to integrate the body into the act of making using clay as a material to transfer the touch and surface into the act of forming an object. This final part will give you the opportunity to think about your next steps as an artist and student.