Comparisons

 Mixed media artist Gillian Lee Smith and sculptor Piero gilardi, both work with a similar material. With Gilardi making his fine sculptures from foam, they both use a soft material for their creations, however they both give off different effects.
    Gillian's dolls are mainly made from a soft fabric, which usually would espress comfort, however each doll has their own darker story behind them, they are painted with high quality detail show the sadness, and pain in each of them, reflecting a story that Gillian had heard about after working with dementia sufferers. Gilardi also uses a soft material, foam that he forms into naturalistic sculptures. They have a different effect from the dolls, being fruit, plants or vegetables that he creates, they don't reflect any emotions. They have a theatrical side to them as they are exaggerated in size, colour and shape. They have a unique edge to them, giving off a more positive feeling with them being naturalistic sculptures, compared to the dolls that express negativity from their odd looks, sad faces and the story behind them.

Iain Simons

Iain Simons, director of Game City and Richard Coyle, props maker both have the similarity of trying to bring a modern twist into what they're both working on. Iain holds the event in the City of Nottingham every year, getting the public involved when trying to create an original idea for video gaming or advertising Game City, moving away from the symbolic gaming images like Pacman or Space Invaders. Richard Coyle however, creates props for television shows or conventions that are held, like Game City. He first moved into this career when he updated a ray gun at a Star Trek convention in 1977, having a background in electronics, he added lights and sounds effects to the modernised ray guns which fans instantly took a shine to. Both Iain and Richard are always looking for something new to work on and try to modernise it, making it stand out above everything else and adding their own unique twist to try and keep up to date with their target audiences.

                                                                                                                    Richard coyle

I have taken an interest in Piero Gilardi's work, the material that he works with is very light and easy to manouver, a good quality when it comes to carrying props around a theatre stage. I want to create props for Alice in Wonderland, and with the foam looking theatrical I think it would suit it perfectly as I can exaggerate what I'm creating to make it visible from afar on stage to the audience. I also really Like Gillian Lee Smith's work, she uses a range of media to achieve her beautiful paintings or sculptures, allowing her to work in fine detail, which is important when trying to express the mood on a stage. Using a range of media will  allow me to achieve the same effect, making the props visible and giving them an original twist.

Piero Gilardi

 Piero Gilardi was an influential figure in the Arte Povera movement, or 'poor art' as it is more commonly known as, throughout the 1960's, a movement that still influences artists today.  From the outset, he was concerned with creating social relations with his art, using interactive sculptures and his creative work with social and political movements.


Nature Carpets
These beautiful carpets are made of Bayer brand polyurethane foam, and soaked in synthetic pigment dissolved in epoxy resin. They are then calved, into natural objects, however they are manipulated to look very theatrical, and slightly over-the-top on their appearance. When being created, Gilardi explained that their softness suggested comfort, all he did was was add a latent longing for a certain idea of nature. The effect is that of an artificial nature whereby the wonders and mysteries of real nature stimulate the brain but manifest themselves elementally under one's foot. 

I like the effect that this carpet holds, it looks very theatrical with the corns being made almost 3 times as big as to a real corn. each one is shaped with exaggeration  the nobbled bits are cut deeper to show what the object is, perhaps from a distance or if it was to placed on the set of a stage, so it can be clearly seen.



















To choose a carpets subject matter, Gilardi looks into the collective subconscious and into his childhood visions and when it comes to the modelling process, by carving, he uses technology which he says is very varied and inventive  in order to avoid the mechanism of representation at all times in favour of visual stimuli. 
Gilardi came up with the idea of creating these carpets one afternoon when he was chatting with a friend about the landscape that will surround the man in the future. He thought this landscape would be different to the image that we are presented with today in science-fiction; somewhat excited, he imagined  a naturalistic environment that was artificially made from synthetic materials for reasons of hygiene and comfort. From that moment on, he was curious to try and experiment with different materials and having identified a soft, but non-deformable material, he built four square metres of rocky torrent bed, basing on a survey he made in a real torrent. He achieved an extraordinary realistic result that he was continuously surprised by after walking for a long time over the material.