I decided to fabricate an oversized Orange Roughy fish from Auckland Council plastic rubbish bags (60 litre orange bags). And to bring this sculpture to life by incorporating movement with a fan inside it as a bellows to inflate it and create the effect of breathing. This work was included in a group show titled: Estranged
the Predator-free series
The displacement of our native wildlife, for agriculture and suburban sprawl, means that the need for a home for each of us (animal as well as human) is becoming more intensified. Left unchecked and with enough resources, populations grow to fill a space and if they continue to expand, those resources become depleted, scarce and the lives of the inhabitants come under threat
project
2020 • Estranged • (group exhibition)
An exhibition at Depot Artspace with a group of recent MFA graduates with each bringing their own interpretation to the word "Estranged". The artists displaying work for this exhibition are: Barbara Smith, Rowan Belcher, Monica Seo, Ken Martin, Barry Ross Smith, Elsa Lye, Gitte Steen-Andersen and Julie Woodward.
Making the Cut
I chose an Orange Roughy because they are New Zealand's largest commercial catch, are slow-growing (maturing) with a very long lifespan (up to 200 years), resulting in low resilience to change. The early working title was: the Breath of the Moon and the idea for this came from thinking about the interconnected nature of earth and the moon. How it is the gravitational pull of the moon that creates the motion in the sea, like a breath, the sea is the lungs of the earth and we are clogging it with plastic.
Using the initial sketch to get the basic idea down on paper, A digital three dimensional version was created in Cinema 4D software. It was then exported to a 3D pattern software package where the digital construct was transformed into 3D isometric shapes (over 200 in total) and the file was printed out onto a long continuous roll of paper with all of the segments displayed to form a pattern in order to cut the shape out.
Each outline shape of the pattern had a small 10mm tag along its outside edge for attaching to the next segment - like a 3d puzzle. The next step in the process was to cut all of the pieces out of the rubbish bags, attach them to each other and then construct all of the specific pieces into a whole forming a bladder for the fan.
Orange Roughy
An electric fan was dismantled and the motor and fan used to power the air flow. An electrician was then utilized to connect the timer and mechanism to stop and start the fan at the desired intervals, which turned out to be 4 seconds. It was set to turn on for four seconds, then stop for three seconds and repeat, creating the effect of a living breathing creature.
The fish sculpture, lying on it’s side is inflated with the electric fan as an air pump. With the use of the rubbish bags, an everyday item that is designed to be discarded, the breath brings a personal focus to a larger environmental problem. Watching the Orange Roughy in process had a disturbing effect and was uncomfortable to view, it's clunky carton appearance created an empathy in me.
This project was part of a group project: Umbrella