Body Language - Body Architecture

Sculpture and dance are closely related. Both awaken body awareness and are a presence in space.
A dance creates rhythm through movement and is transient. A sculpture condenses visual rhythms into a permanent spatial architecture. Postures and gestures tell stories; volumes and proportions clarify characters. When modelling a figure, we express a physicality, articulate a concept of style and formulate a world of ideas.
Observations of nature, plants, animals or human bodies are the starting point for the modelling studies.

Course program:
In order to be able to model a free-standing figure with the soft clay, we reinforce it with an armature. Delicate sculptures, equally, will be made stable and ready for firing, with a strong inner skeleton made of elastic wire and absorbent fibres. Combining the three materials is possible, if these materials are joined together carefully and with a targeted approach.

Day 1: Drawing and sketching
Day 2: Making the wire skeleton
Day 3: Preparations for volume building
Day 4: Modelling
Day 5: Modelling, Evaluation

We draw the expression and proportion of the body. The drawings help us to shape the skeleton. Next we sew plant fibers onto the skeleton, whereupon we model the figure with clay.
Choosing a support base, stylistics, art history of sculpture, development history of the image of man.

Course objective:
To maintain and develop the image of man with a contemporary design language. To refine anatomical knowledge. To deepen the knowledge of body awareness and body expression.
Reflecting on artistic questions: plastic means of expression, sculptural interpretation and sculptural composition.

Please bring along, if possible:
Pencils, hard and soft, erasers, Knipex pliers, telephone pliers (combined bite and flat nose pliers), project-related image material, illustrated books on the subject.

Useful preparation: Collecting images for the modelling work and Iconographic research

The course language is German, but the tutor also speaks French, Italian and English.