Intuitive Sense of Connection at Bondi

Arriving to the Bondi beach with a taxi straight from the airport at 9 am, we saw the truck with sculptures just arriving. How exciting!!! If you look really closely, you can see the skeleton of Intuitive Sense of Connection at the front of the truck.

This is the spot where it is going:

Several hours later, boxes with the ceramic are lowered by crane:

That is the moment when I realize how monumental undertaking this whole thing is. Am I really here, 4 000 km away from home waiting for MY sculpture to be positioned on the rocks? Exciting. Humbling. Amazing. Terrifying.
Luckily, there is not much time to think about it, as all of a sudden, there is lots to do.
First the skeleton needs to be stabilized.

Then weighted down....

And than dressed up....

Emma is here to help, and so is my husband (behind the camera at the moment)

145 ceramic triangles need to find their exact spot, and be bolted in....

I could not choose the favourite vantage point. I think it looks good from all angles.

Wow, it is done! If you are in Sydney, I'll be lingering around on Thursday from about 10 am, and so will most of the artists present.
Come and say hello!

Open Studio

Today I'm opening the door to the visitors.
The studio has never been so tidy:

Tessellations

I  am curious.
What would it look like if I apply this:

onto that:

and make it in clay?

Clay sketches

The question is how do I depict the essence of the form, without being to literal about it. I want to use the same style framework as the Intuitive Sense of Connection, but create an object with a very different feel. Using the same dimensions provides me with a starting point few steps further along the path. I can use the wooden frame from the previous mould as a starting point in creating a new one.

Armed with several paper sketches, it is time to do some 3 d rough drafts in clay and see if I can get a feel for the form...

First attempt:

Several hours later there is not much more I can do to it. I can't quite see how they would connect together, so I'm trying to get a better idea by connecting the photographed form in Photoshop:

I know, it doesn't look very exciting. Lets try that again....another 2 hours in the studio have produced this:

For the time being, I am convinced that it will work, and I march on forward to make a plaster mould.....

The next day I look at it with the fresh eyes and decide that it is better to be brutally honest with myself than put more effort into it.

It is too big and chunky and very sixties and I need to start again.....

Yes, the monkey on my shoulder tries to argue that as I have put so much effort into it, I  might as well continue and I will like it better as it grows, but I have been there before and decide to listen to the gut feeling and give it another go.

Back to the empty wooden frame....

and back to the original images... I am particularly intrigued by this one:

I found it on Emiliania huxleyi Coccoliths web site ( Click on name to go to the very informative site)

And this is the third attempt.

I am much happier with it.