Kate Riniker

      Assignment #1 Working with wood      What inspired this piece is my obsession with banana bread. Silly but, yes. I wanted this assignment to push myself. Work with more fluid movement in my sculpture, rather than a stiff cubic wood structure. I used only glue to hold together my piece. I am using a running brick placement to layer the individual components of wood. It may not be obvious when you first see this sculpture, yet the reason for that method of assembly is to make note of the international trade that bananas partake in. They are a highly demanded product that is outsourced from another hemisphere. Traveling to another place to be eaten by many. Hence the title “Mass Consumption”. The individual pieces of wood represent all of the places that consume the fruit. The number of pieces of wood used isn’t an accurate percentage of consumers, but you get the idea. The reason for tinting the wood was a subtle showing of the aged banana look. 

  Keyboard bust  I created this bust with the intention to focus on cyberbullying. Bullying is such a common thing amongst all ages. However, online bullying is more accessible. Adults bully adults, kids bully kids and even adults bully kids and vice versa. Online bullying is sadly so much easier to do. If you choose to be unknown you can be. The reasoning for all the random pasted newsprint letters over the bust is the words that people are using to label that being. They're using their words to identify that person. The backside of the bust has a keyboard in place of the brain. The person who's being bullied in this piece is also someone who is bullying others. The colour pink that coats the inside of the head is to represent that this is human flesh at the end of the day. Be mindful of what you say and who you say it.

Fish head I created this clay sculpture to visualize what pollution can do to our environment. We all talk about “saving the turtles” and whatnot about straws. There is so much more than straws and turtles. Plastic bags, linings of soda cans, animals being strangled and trapped in our creations. It is frustrating to see how we constantly continue to just overrule and take things that were here before us. Land, sea, and the atmosphere. When will it stop? We need to realize it won't get any better. The lame excuse of, “Well I’ll just get a plastic bag because it is already made and here in the store”. A terrible mindset because the more you think that way, well then you're just giving the creators more of a reason to produce it if you keep buying it. The solution is to simply stop getting the product to cut back their profit.  I choose a plastic bottle because they are just handed out like candy is to kids. We don’t always see where our trash ends up. This piece is to visualize...

 

  Artist Statement:      The small sculpture constructed of paper, water, and inks make up a scene from a novel written by Franz Kafka. The title of the book, Metamorphosis tells the story of a salesman Gregor Samsa. He wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect. He struggles with this new adjustment. Rightfully so considering he is now a large bug that society could never accept. This book is rather sad and gloomy. When reading back over the book I feel an overwhelming shadow over me. Trapped in his room, scared to be seen by his family. We spend most of the time in his room while reading the book. While reading you don’t get the impression that his room is decorated or as much light in the room. Maybe a lamp and a single-window but, the window is covered with a blind not allowing in much light. I feel that most if not all furniture and minimal decorations that are in the room are there due to his parents' choice of placement. N...