My continuing series of pinkStardust: my search for time and space.
What do aluminum foil and Andy Warhol have to do with me or pinkStardust?
Andy as my Main Muse: Andy is very important both as part of the story I am telling in pinkStardust (I will write about that in more detail when I discuss the framework of the installation, the timeline) and as inspiration for the look of the installation (his work as a Pop artist). As development of the installation has evolved, so has Andy’s role as muse – both supporting and even suggesting work. He’s my Main Muse!
When I first realized that skin, the installation that became the first in MMP (My Manhattan Project) was not a stand alone work back in 2012, I began developing the timeline and a poster for pinkStardust that would serve as a guide for the look of the installation.
Work on the poster quickly became problematic as I struggled to create the right image of the atomic explosion in the cocktail glass. I drew and erased, drew and erased, drew and erased… Painted, then painted over it, painted, and again painted over it… Finally in great frustration I raised my head to the heavens and yelled out loud “Andy, help me!” In 10 minutes the image was done.
Here are a couple of images of the poster during my struggle with rendering the atomic explosion. Andy helped me and in doing so I realized the completed image was also a better choice because it was a generic explosion – not just representing one explosion (as these pics where I was working from a pic of the Trinity test)
I made the poster using material that had been damaged – there was a rip extending from mid-center bottom to about one third up the canvas. I mended it using medical tape. My choice of using a damaged/mended canvas for the poster is an example of how I choose materials when creating installations (some sort of conceptual significance) however this choice became even more interesting to me when I later ran across Richard Avedon’s photo of Andy exposing his damaged and repaired body after the shooting he suffered in 1968 (one of Avedon’s photos, below). Andy is damaged, mended, scarred.
The completed poster for pinkStardust.
Aluminum foil: One of the materials I have been using quite a bit of making images for pinkStardust is aluminum foil. This began when I was completing The Four Enola Geishas for the installation (I will be posting a page on making The Four Enola Geishas later) and needed to decide how to present the information about the original woodblocks prints that I had appropriated (a process used a lot by Warhol and other Pop artists). Once again frustrated by trial and error attempts, I asked Andy for guidance and his Silver Factory of 1964 came to mind and rescue.
I skinned the bottom of each canvas with aluminum foil (using the matte side to make it a reference to, not a copying of) and painted the info on top in black – information about the original artist of the woodblock print, and information about the altered image I created (such as info on the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
Good choice! Then came the next problem to creatively solve. Since each Enola Geisha will be hung in the middle of the gallery when the installation is exhibited I needed to attend to the backs of the canvases.
I tried painting them completely black. No. Too visually engulfing. Next I considered applying a vintage Asian fabric to each. No. Too decorative. Then I skinned each of them using the matte side of aluminum foil just as I had on the front. Perfect.
Adding schematics of a uranium atom, plutonium atom, a water molecule and a DNA strand in a broken line-type printing (referencing Andy’s early work as a commercial artist) completed The Four Enola Geishas and continued my referencing the Pop Art movement and especially Warhol’s work.
This is an image of a plutonium atom – printed onto the back of Nagasaki Maiden, one of the Four Enola Geishas.
Again, I will write more about the choice of each schematic when I post a page about the making of The Four Enola Geishas.
I am continuing to use the process of skinning works using the matte side of aluminum foil for some of the other pieces for pinkStardust, such as the large canvas called Castle Bravo.
Here’s a detail of the Castle Bravo canvas – skinned in aluminum foil with a drawing of the thermonuclear test rendered using white pipe cleaners. I’ll write more about this image and material choices as well in a later posting.
I recently began a new series of works called The 32 Most Notorious Atomic Tests. It will be sold as a fundraiser for materials and supplies for pinkStardust. It begins with 32 canvases 16″ x 20″ in size, skinned using the matte side of aluminum foil, then covered with a couple of coats of black paint. More references to Andy and his work.
I’ll write about the making of The 32 Most Notorious Atomic Tests (still in progress) with my next posting of pinkStardust: my search for time and space.
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