F A K E   W O O D  V I N Y L

For this project each of us were given a pound shop object which we had to include in our process or idea.

I was given a fake wood vinyl (pack of three squares) size: 305x305x1 mm, coverage: 45sq. ft.

My strating point was the analysis of the object, what it was made of, and what it was used for. What I concluded from studying the vinyl, is that it is bought to cover broken tiles on the floor, or either wholes in the flooring of a house. The vinyl is used to hide imperfections on the floor, however, this does not mean it does this properly, aesthetically it dos not look right, the floor is unlevelled causing disturbances to the eye.





Further on, I started sketching some ideas on how I could use the object in my work, the first concept was to create a stump from the fake vinyl recreating the global situation with the decay of the planet. Would we have to create fake trees from vinyl in the future? would nature be turned into produced product by human beings?

During the research I came across a term I had very little knowledge on, C O N C E P T U A L I S M.
I then decided to study what it meant and the artists that created conceptual works. Conceptualists asserted that their art works were essentially ideas rather than items - material objects were no more than conduits for concepts. Conceptual art radically redefined the artwork. The objects presented by conceptualists were asserted in terms of how successfully they communicated ideas rather than by any aesthetic consideration.

                                           J O S E P H   B E U Y S

                                                                                                      J O S E P H   K O S U T H

                                                                                                     M A R C E L   B R O O A T H E R S

"Receivers rather than viewers"

Le Witt " The idea becomes the machine that makes the art", meaning that the ability en identity of the maker was less important than the concept.

Parting from the concepts of Conceptualism, I decided to challenge myself and create a work which integrated the main ideas of Conceptualism. At the beginning it was very hard, because the work was not meant to be aesthetically intriguing, but it had to express a concept, and idea.

Using the first idea's concept, which was to create something fake made out of the fake wood vinyls, I decided to use as a main inspiration Joseph Kosuth. His works consisted of many different works, meaning that there was not only one piece in the work of art, but three. This idea drove me to considerate a work created by more than one piece. I used the fake stump as an initial piece, which would be followed by two others questioning the environmental situation of the planet.

I wanted to add to the work, a real tree, however due to the circumstances, I had to restrain myself and take a picture of  tree in the city, which was followed by a half fake, half real stump created with the vinyl, and finally, I decided to use as a third piece of the work on of the vinyls, with no alterations.

The work questioned the processes we use in the human planet and critiqued the environmental situation. We are accustomed to create from a starting point from real to fake. However, I wanted to expose the question of what would happen in the future if we kept on behaving with nature the way we are doing. Would we have to create real from fake? Would we have to create "real trees" from fake?

I was very pleased with the final idea, of these three pieces placed in line, touching each other and exposing the problem. However, I was let down by the fact that I could not create the real work. Due to certain restrictions I had to photoshop and create an image of how the final work would look like. This was not as effective as the real work would have been, this is why, reflecting upon this project I set myself the goal to create a physical work of art in my next project that I could expose and get feedback on reactions by the viewers.