Sky High

For full size images go here [link]

Project theme is “Sky High”. First started looking into flying, since… well, you can guess. When I think of flying, I think of freedom, and when I think of freedom, I think of flight, so in many ways the ‘idea’ behind this piece is freedom.

A few people were asked “What do you think of when I say ‘freedom’?” and some responses included corruption, beaches, opression, flight, travelling, America, birds etc. Someone just left their piece of paper blank and told me she thought of emptiness when I asked her that question. I’d talk more about how freedom is related to the piece, but it would probably just bore you.

I’ve spent the last two and a half weeks producing these wings. It’s made of wood, denim, wax, feathers, tissue paper, willow twigs, PVA glue, nuts/ bolts/ washers/ sleeves, part of an old rucksack and a packed sawdust board. The tissue paper, willow twigs and PVA glue were used to create substitute feathers because I am a cheap person and I do not want to buy 500 feathers. I did manage to buy 150 though and I’ve made about 300 ‘fake’ ones.

The only thing holding the real/ ‘fake’ feathers to the denim is wax, which I wanted to use because one of my earliest inspirations was the myth of Icarus. I didn’t expect the wax to hold onto the fabric this well and I now love wax, just to let you know.

Also, if you’ve noticed that the denim on one of the wings is blue and the other is black, that is because I ran out of black denim so I settled for dark blue denim on the second wing (I’ve covered it up with tissue paper in some of the photos). And if you didn’t notice… well now you know.

Thank you to my lovely models, Sarah and Bhavin!