Laura Ford: "Bird"
Reflection
The best part about being enrolled in the advanced digital photography class, besides the fact that the class is based on your own perspective, is the fact that we periodically get to experience other artist's work throughout the year. For example, recently we went on a field trip to the Decordova Art Museum and Sculpture Park which is home to dozens of artists’ original pieces of art. Our teacher asked us to evaluate one piece of art that interested us. Although the concept of evaluating and determining the artists purpose in creating a piece is ultimately impossible, it is interesting to try and figure out why they would create a certain feeling to their piece.
One sculpture that really stuck out to me that I admired the most. Laura Ford’s cast bronze sculpture called “Bird” caught my attention due to its oddity and fairytale features. This Sculpture made its debut at Decordova in 2007 and was placed at the edge of the sculpture park looking towards the main building of Decordova. This sculpture stands 4 feet 3 inches tall and was made from painted bronze which was cast from an additive clay sculpture. What makes this “Bird” stand out is that the fact the body and head/ of the bird are supported by human legs which are clothed and childlike. The body of the bird is rough in texture to represent the feathers and the head and beck have impeccable detail.
It’s hard to determine why Laura ford decided to make this sculpture due to its oddity but based on other work by her you can come to conclusions. Laura Ford has a few exhibits in the Sculpture Park of which are the "Armour Boys" which are miniature medieval soldiers dead in one area to represent a battle. The Bird also looks over the fallen “Armour Boys” which makes you wonder if these two exhibits are potentially related in some way. The combination of these two anthropomorphic sculptures makes me believe that Laura’s childhood was filled with both positive and negative aspects of fairy tales . I also think the placement of the sculpture was perfect; being perched on the perimeter of the park it looks out over the whole park ominously.
I believe that Laura did an amazing job in making an exhibit that is both unexpected in subject matter but very detailed in the execution of the piece. Although the Bird does not have eyes, it seems to be peering over to the dead soldiers which create very sinister and dark feeling to this exhibit. On the flip side this piece is playful in that it takes an everyday bird, and the legs of a child and combines them together into one fairy tale like, anthropomorphic sculpture. Finally the location of the sculpture,located in the middle of foliage (trees/ bushes), reinforces the topic of "Bird".
One sculpture that really stuck out to me that I admired the most. Laura Ford’s cast bronze sculpture called “Bird” caught my attention due to its oddity and fairytale features. This Sculpture made its debut at Decordova in 2007 and was placed at the edge of the sculpture park looking towards the main building of Decordova. This sculpture stands 4 feet 3 inches tall and was made from painted bronze which was cast from an additive clay sculpture. What makes this “Bird” stand out is that the fact the body and head/ of the bird are supported by human legs which are clothed and childlike. The body of the bird is rough in texture to represent the feathers and the head and beck have impeccable detail.
It’s hard to determine why Laura ford decided to make this sculpture due to its oddity but based on other work by her you can come to conclusions. Laura Ford has a few exhibits in the Sculpture Park of which are the "Armour Boys" which are miniature medieval soldiers dead in one area to represent a battle. The Bird also looks over the fallen “Armour Boys” which makes you wonder if these two exhibits are potentially related in some way. The combination of these two anthropomorphic sculptures makes me believe that Laura’s childhood was filled with both positive and negative aspects of fairy tales . I also think the placement of the sculpture was perfect; being perched on the perimeter of the park it looks out over the whole park ominously.
I believe that Laura did an amazing job in making an exhibit that is both unexpected in subject matter but very detailed in the execution of the piece. Although the Bird does not have eyes, it seems to be peering over to the dead soldiers which create very sinister and dark feeling to this exhibit. On the flip side this piece is playful in that it takes an everyday bird, and the legs of a child and combines them together into one fairy tale like, anthropomorphic sculpture. Finally the location of the sculpture,located in the middle of foliage (trees/ bushes), reinforces the topic of "Bird".