Proud and Flow

Every form falls on the spectrum of Proud or Flow. Proud being composed of geometric, static, regular, angular and bulky forms, while Flow is more organic, slender, and dynamic. So it's a great exercise in emotive form with the bonus of seeing which end of the spectrum your aesthetic falls. This has been the assignment given to every Studio 1 class for at least four years.

My class did not do Proud and Flow. We did Historical Forms instead, but there were a lot of Proud and Flow forms anyway. The way Historical Forms work is that each person in the class was given a decade to derive themes from, and then to manifest those themes into a three dimensional sculpture.

I had the 1980s. I was disappointed with my assignment at first (Reagan, mauve, and shoulder pads, really), but I got really into it during the research phase. The themes I came up with were Bravado and Insecurity.


Bravado
The 80s mainstream culture was all about Machismo. In fashion, there were masculine silhouettes everywhere, most notably through shoulder pads. Ralph Lauren got his start by selling that sporty look to non-athletes. The Armani power suit was the must have outfit for the corporate climber. Everything was an expression of power and competence. Here I've tried to incorporate that silhouette while maintaining that 80s prismatic aesthetic.


Insecurity
The flip side of Bravado is Insecurity. Because the country had the looming threat of Communism, the highest unemployment rate since the great Depression (or until recently), and the Savings and Loans fall out, it was natural not to feel confident about the nation's future. I looked at forms in nature for inspiration. In forms that have a protective function in nature (shells and horns) the spiral occurs frequently. In fact, the ultimate act of insecurity for a human being is to curl up into the fetal position. From the front, it's that very dramatic V-shape silhouette, and from its profile, you get the spiral shape. This is my favorite of the two because of the pathos that people who interacted with it showed.


From certain angles, it has a really playful form. Like a dog or a cat that wants a belly rub.



This project was a lot of fun, even if I'm not the best at making physical models.