strippedTo some concrete may be cold, uninviting and uninteresting, for me?, I absolutely love the stuff! When designing my studio benchtop I had lots of ideas on how I was going to jazz it up and make it an artistic masterpiece. Sure there are colour additives, coloured aggregates that can be honed and polished, formwork can be manipulated to introduce curves and the like however in the end I couldnt get away from the straight lines, the naturalness of plain concrete in its purest form.

I have just finished the 4 uprights that will support the suspended benchtop. I was outside this morning and I couldnt help but to touch and run my hands over the freshly poured uprights. There is something primitive to concrete and when manipulated into straight controlled edges of the finished product just sings to me. These babies need to sit and cure for 28 days and then its time to move them inside and prepare the suspended formwork to accommodate the suspended benchtop. Again I will be keeping the benchtop in its simplest form except for a rounded timber strip that will be fixed on the near edge to just take the sharpness off the edge of the slab. I have put voids in one of the legs so the cords and cables from my computer will feed down through the top of the benchtop and down through one of the uprights to the power switch keeping it all unobtrusive. In about 28 days once the uprights have fully cured the benchtop will be poured and the finished result will be this massive concrete desk structure. While not an actual sculpture, just its presence and the ability to work over such a solid bench will be worth the effort.

more info on the creation of the uprights.....  http://craig-james.com.au/artists-journal-2010/studio-concrete-benchtop

Last modified on Friday, 28 May 2010 08:40
Home Studio Notes Studio Notes - 2010 Something about concrete
Find me Series of Work Latest Posts Fuken Twitter
Email Me
Facebook
twitter
RSS

Experimental Works - 2010

Experimental Works - 2010 A change in direction, experimentation with materials and mediums,  less thinking and more painting, without the words, without anything apart from the visual. View Gallery

Experimental Works - 2009

Experimental Works - 2009 From a lack of money and art supplies I have begun using different materials and exploring different techniques. Quite refreshing actually, more freehand and adhoc.  View gallery..

Fuk All U Cunts 2009

This series of artwork explores my ability to rip down and destroy everything I know and rebuild my life how I personally believe it should be lived. Not an easy task when It can  sometimes touch close to insanity. View gallery..

2004 to 2009 Artwork

This series of work has been included into Fuk all U Cunts as it's related to self exploration. In 2005 before my alcoholism and strained personal relationships, I had also attempted to explore my inner psyche   View gallery...

avatar2"According to Freud, through art we attempt to create alternatives to reality in which we channel our irrational and anti-social drives in socially acceptable ways."

twitter Bird