FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION - - concept of self
Frida Kahlo Painted Mirror, Tesoro Trading Company
Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room, Hirshhorn Collection
Details behind Kusama's Infinity Rooms, LA Times
"It's All About You- Expressing Your Identity Through Art" Brandon Long, Art Center of the Bluegrass
This article stripped down identity and self expression through art down to the basics. Taking elementary schoolers to an art museum and asking which piece they identified with the most. Hearing the way they created their responses resonated with my intentions of this "unsolvable problem" of the concept of identity.
Sketches-
My idea is to take this concept of self actualization or realization and point out the problem (or not so much problem as phenomena) of the self and identity. By making this mirror box I want to create a space where you can only do one thing- look at yourself. Following the principles of form follows function and modernism. The piece itself will be very simple, created to reflect the task at hand. With this lack of ornament the viewer is forced to look at themselves, maybe thinking about their identity or what that entails.
Maquette
Sketchup Model
The function of this room is self discovery. Even though we navigate the world and live our day to days as ourselves there seem to be parts that we don’t quite understand or have never seen. Following the mindset of form follows function a room full of mirrors at all angles quite literally represents the function of self discovery. Research for this project consisted of familiarizing myself with modernism, the umbrella term of the subject of form fits function. And the work of Yayoi Kusama and her famous mirror rooms. The research was mostly on the construction of these mirror rooms, and how Kusama would get the effect she desired
The visual and physical design also reflect a little bit of Kusama’s work. Obviously the mirrors and small space were a direct example of her. The plain and organic shape of this room was really a physical manifestation of form follows function. Like we read in class about modernism and the societal crime of ornament I thought a lot about those in the presentation of my project. Usually ornament is something very apparent in my work and this concept interested me, so I tried to make it the least ornamental as possible.
My relationship to form follows function is something new. As mentioned earlier most of the time in my art I focus heavily on detail and ornament or the aesthetics of a piece, much more than the technical or the function of the piece. This was an interesting concept to find out about and try to embody. This gave me a false assumption of what “form” and “function” were all about. Considering how in the past I would have probably rejected the idea of form follows function, thinking it would leave no room for a design aspect or an aesthetic choice or two I think about how I was able to add elements of both in my design while also keeping it in line with the modernist ideals. Now I know after this that form and function are so much more than taking away any ornament and just having a bare piece. I know form and function are supposed to be shown and spotlighted but there is also room for design. It was a great seemingly obvious discovery, but now I know the two can co exist without completely clashing with eachother.
