You have a match!

Untitled

“You have a match!”
Materials used: Plaster and GI wire
Date completed: March 31, 2014

"You have a match!” (back view)
(back view)

Online dating is a whole new world I’ve recently explored, and it’s both exciting and scary. There are some hilarious days, some dull ones, but mostly it gives me a unique insight into men and women interacting in a free space…no physical, even geographic boundaries. Does it level the playing field, reverse roles, objectify? It’s so fascinating.

I like working with economy, using minimal elements, especially for a subject that is normally warm and abundant: love and relationships. Online dating is a push and pull between male-female, truth-ideal, real-virtual. It zooms in on the tensions we already encounter in boy-girl relating, because everything is pared down to the modern day chat: a conversation without voice, gesture, eye contact.

Does it make it easier to impress, to tug at the heart, to connect? Or is the efficiency it promises its own undoing?

#wire #sculpture #dating #men #women

Process documentation:

I wanted to do a piece that was streamlined and simple — to give that feeling of starkness, efficiency, straightforwardness. It was a modern piece so it naturally fell in with the minimalist sensibility of wires.

I used just three pieces of wire in total: one continuous line for the faces (to show union), and one each for the bodies of the man and woman (to show two separate individuals that compose the union).

I decided to add in a plastered base and focal point for the Yes-No button (Heart and X), to show that with one click, the connection either comes to life or isn’t even given a chance to exist.

Below is my creative process at every step:

First step: To create the faces using one continuous wire.

Step#2: Add in the bodies. Basic lines done.

Carving out the X and the heart.

Adding the final element:

I played around with different materials to add to the piece: paper hearts and flowers.


Textual Documentation / Lessons learned:

  • Simple is best.
  • Lines can be powerful communicators when used with restraint.

Additional sketches/References:
Inspiration for the wire portraits were the works of Gavin Worth.

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