For my outcome 3, I decided to revisit my research about thresholds. I looked at the process of entering religious spaces and how our behaviour changes in these spaces. I was also interested in the spiritual significance we place on certain locations and on the threshold into the afterlife.
To experiment with these concepts, I returned to my original site and created lino monoprints of the entrance. I used different sized cutting tools to create detail and printed on coloured paper to see which would stand out the best.. I worked back into the prints with watercolour to portray the place beyond the threshold. I was inspired by the work of Mark Hearld [29] because of its illustrative qualities. I then made another using inverted colours to show how strange the space feels once you enter.
I then decided to do an intervention to explore the concepts of entering a place. I couldn't do this at my original site because it would be unethical to tamper with the entrance of a church. I put up 'no entry' signs to change the meaning of the different paths to see if this would make them more eerie, or if they are more appealing because of curiosity. I also made a sign stating you were 'entering a sacred space' I wanted to see if the feeling of a space can change just because of a label we put on it, like how people act more respectfully in churchyards.
For my final outcome, I looked at the work of Paul Smith [30] because he makes a lot of studies of trees. I like the dark colours, with contrasting highlights because it creates a divide between the levels of the painting. The large brushstrokes are expressive and energetic, which is effective because it portrays the movement of the trees.
I made 2 plans on MDF to work out my composition. The first one has a warmer colour palette and is landscape, which is more traditional. On the second plan, I used a colder colour palette and a portrait orientation to show more of the path and the lead up to threshold.
I painted my final piece onto a canvas, starting with washes of acrylic to map out the composition and then layered more detail. The painting shows the lead up to the 'other side', which is in a brighter colour palette and reflected onto the water on the path. I wanted to show the divide between the two spaces, as if the viewer is walking 'into the light', which is a euphemism for dying and entering the afterlife. I feel I captured some energy in the trees but in future work I would like to be more expressive to show movement.
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