1. Working Subtractively with Relief
Project #7
CHANGE: relief in plaster

2. Firstly, what does working subtractively mean?

3. Relief Low to high Frontal view
Subtractive Materials: wood, stone, marble, clay, cement or plaster
Age & location: clay, cave walls in France from 13,000BC to marble temples in India, to Egyptian Tomb Walls from the 11th Dynasty

4. Sunk Relief

5. Pharaoh Akhenaten & wife Nefertiti & daughters
During the period of Akhenaten – Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt who ruled 17 years until about 1336BC.
Sunk = Linear cutting, mostly used in hieroglyphs & cartouches

6. Low Relief or Bas Relief

7. Low relief coin Deux figures by Joseph Csaky
Sestertius of Emperor Pupienus
238 AD
Deux figures by Joseph Csaky
limestone, polychrome, 80cm
Otterlo, Netherlands
1920

8. Mid Relief

9. Persian Mid-Relief (mezzo-rilievo)
Qajar era:
Taneh Savashi, Iran

10. Gates of Paradise By Lorenzo Ghiberti
Cast Gilt-Bronze
1401
Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy

11. High Relief

12. The Frieze of Parnassus, Albert Memorial
169 life-size full-length sculptures of individual artists (painters, poets, musicans, architects, sculptors) from history. In memory of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. London.
Total length: 210 feet, Date: 1860’s

13. The Frieze of Parnassus

14. Vimal Vashi Temple
Dedicated to the first Jain Tirthankara, Adinath. Carved out of white marble with interior is gold-brass caste, including main shrine and elaborate columns. Ceiling is engraved with lotus-buds, petals, flowers & scenes from Jain & Hindu mythoology.
Size in feet: 98 long x 42 wide
1032 AD

15. Vimal Vashi Temple

16. Project #7 CHANGE: relief in plaster
Working subtractively with a plaster mold, embody the concept change.
Consider the word, the idea, and your immediate association with this term.
What does change signify to you . . .

17. Could CHANGE stand for:
Transformation? (for example: the seasons changing from spring into summer into fall into winter)
Money? (pocket change—the left-overs)
Politics? (for example: President Obama’s 1st election was slogan was based upon the image of change. Now, during his 2nd term, the opposing party argues American needs another change of direction Same story every 4 years it seems…)

18. IMAGERY – non-objective evolving into representational
 You are given the freedom to select the interpretation of your choosing. You can take a literal, representational, non-objective, or abstract way of visualizing change.
Whatever imagery and meaning you pursue, the plaster carving must demonstrate an evolution or transformation of sorts. This could be manifested, but not limited to these aspects:
TEXTURE – evolving from organic, curvilinear spaces into rigid, geometric spaces
IMAGERY – non-objective evolving into representational
QUALITY – rough, wide deep cuts that evolve into delicate, smooth surface-based incisions

19. Questions to consider:
You decide how and where and in what abundance you reveal the evolution and transformation of change.
Questions to consider:
-What does change look like?
-What does change feel like?
-What elements lend themselves to being closer to the surface? Further away?
-What type of composition could lead viewers to transformation? (the grid? diagonal shift? radial symmetry? moving from left to right? Top to bottom?)

20. #7 REQUIRMENTS: Personal, thoughtful response to CHANGE
The work evolves, transforms in more than one manner
At least 4 levels of relief
Variety of texture

21. Example visual art images of CHANGE
(images that are REDUCED, can be imagined in RELIEF)

22. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem By Dani Karavan
A bas relief wall installation that covers the back wall of Israel’s Knesset (parliamnet). About 79 feet wide X 23 feet tall.

23. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem By Dani Karavan

24. Artist William Gordon Huff standing beside his bas-relief that depicts two extinct American lions (Felis atrox) attacking a long-horned species of extinct bison (Bison Latifronts)
Both species are from the Pleistocene of California and their fossils are know from the La Brea tar pits of southerin California.
Huff’s life span:

25. PREP for PLASTER RELIEF
Example 3-toned Sketch
PREP for PLASTER RELIEF

26. Still Life (guitar) by Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973)
Still Life with Musical Instruments
by Jacques Lipchitz
Charcoal on paper
9 ½ x 12 ½”
1922
Material: presumably plaster
Scale: unknown
1918

27. Left: Mother and Child (ink drawing) Right: Mother and Child (bronze sculpture) by Jacque Lipchitz
Left: Pencil, Indian ink and wash on paper, 1947
Right: Mother and Child, 1949 bronze.

28. Musical Instruments, Standing Relief by Jacques Lipchitz
Plaster
About 15 x 19 x 4”
1924