Splitting off in our groups we were tasked with a mini project to explore Richard Serra’s verb list and experiment with applying the ideas to our own creative practice. Richard Serra is one of the preeminent American artists and sculptors of the post-Abstract Expressionist period. Beginning in the late 1960s to the present, his work has played a major role in advancing the tradition of modern abstract sculpture in the aftermath of Minimalism. His work draws new, widespread attention to sculpture's potential for experience by viewers in both physical and visual terms, no less often within a site-specific, if not highly public setting. In 1967, Richard Serra, began writing a list of verbs that would inspire his work in any medium. The handwritten list below is now part of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection. Here’s how MoMA describes the piece:
In pencil on two sheets of paper, the artist lists the infinitives of 84 verbs – to roll, to crease, to fold, to store, etc.—and 24 possible contexts—of gravity, of entropy, of nature, etc. – in four columns of script. Serra described the list as a series of “actions to relate to oneself, material, place, and process,” and employed it as a kind of guide for his subsequent practice in multiple mediums.
We chose an object, a statue of an elderly lady, and we sat down and brainstormed our ideas.
After reading the verbs, I wanted to go with ‘to burn’ as I thought it would make some amazing effects whilst burning.
Everyone else decided their verbs and we made a plan of linking the verbs together. We would begin with Louisa, ‘to spray‘ with paint, then Katy would ’to splash’ with oil, then to myself ‘to burn‘, over to Alex ‘to drop’, then to Tom ‘to scatter’ and Gina ‘to stick‘ back together.
We prepared ourselves with health and safety gear. We needed face masks to protect from the fumes of the spray paint and safety goggles for the fire. Also safety gloves to protect from the heat and a fire extinguisher, just in case anything caught fire that it shouldn’t. Newsprint was used underneath the old lady for the flames to start and we picked a secluded outdoor location.
Once our object was in place, Louisa did the first process and used 3 different colours of spray paint. It really changed the feel of the object, it made it feel grungy and graffiti like. I liked the contrast between the colours she chose.
Next Katy splashed the object with oil to make it more flammable. This gave the object a shimmery look.
We scrunched up the paper surrounding the object so it would burn easier and there would be something to light. I then lit the paper and we watched the object burn. It made a charcoal effect on the edges of the object and I really loved the pictures of it burning. It brought the once bleak old lady to life with burning embers. It was really quite dramatic seeing the art work change in mood.
We then put the fire out with sand which added texture to the piece.
Alex planned how he would do his 'to drop' verb. He made an X on the floor for where it would land.
He then dropped the object from a wall and we caught it in slow motion on camera.
Tom changed his from "to scatter" to "to gather" as we realised quickly that it had already been scattered when dropped.
Lastly Gina changed hers to "to rebuild" and her and Alex made a sculpture using a glue gun and then sprayed it gold - we all loved the finished object!
This is the finished set of the series and the process we took to experiment getting here was very fun. To go from a sweet looking old lady to this almost joker looking sculpture was brilliant! It’s another being in its own right. I felt each change in state from the original form to the end piece. It changed in mood, colour, texture and as a spectator for the ’to burn’ verb it had expressive qualities to it. For me it brought up feelings of empathy, disgust, despair and powerlessness.
This is our groups zine before printed. We each documented and made a picture of our own verb and then put it into photoshop to make one zine.
We printed out, cut up and put together our finished Zine and took pictures below. I really like how our colour scheme has come together using the green card for a background for our images. It compliments the colours of each picture well.
Thinking about my next project I will experiment with Serra's verbs and see what kind of piece's I create. I would like to explore this further by making my own zine for each process I do in each project.
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