User:BabetteVerhulst

Badboot/Bathboat made by Wieki Somers (2005)

Class of april 24

Cutting Edge of the Present

Badboot made by Wieki Somers

The artist herself said that the work was more about the thin line between relaxing in a bath and floating in a boat on the water. In our time, right now this artwork means so much more than she had intended for it. It's about harmony, differences and acceptance.

The combination of the bath and the boat, both having their own function and meaning, and both having the element of water playing a big role in that. The bath is to contain water in it, whereas the boat is to float in it. However the boat could never float if it was to contain water. You see how these two lie so very close to each other, but yet could never be the same. It is not about the experience that both the bath and the boat give us, but about their function and how they can stand strong together. I think this is something I could want to work with.

My statement

My chosen artwork is 'badboot' by Wieki Somers, made in 2005. I chose it because I was intrigued by the combination of the bath and the boat and how she was able to find a balance between the two objects. Their function, shape and the contraction I thought were interesting starting points.

My transformation of the artwork 'badboot' by Wieki Somers is a series of pictures that contain an uninflated inflatable boat. There are two series, one for the bath and one for the boat. In these photographs I try to show elements that are a part of the bath and the boat and to show how they are different from each other.

During my research on the subject I realized something interesting. The bath and the boat, to me, in a way address the issue of public and private. Without thinking about it, the original artwork got another layer to it, and this made me think of taking a different approach with the work. Showing something in between.

A bathroom is to most people a private place. It is closed off, with a door and a lock. So, when you take a bath in this private place, you feel comfort in knowing that you are.

A boat on the other hand is always in a public space, the water. On a lake or on the sea, it is always public, and the only way to make use of the boat. So, if you are on a boat there are no rooms to close yourself of in with locks.

But mostly the series is about taking the one object, the inflatable boat, and putting them in different surroundings and using different objects, to show the difference between the bath and the boat. The reason that I chose to do it this way, was to show the thin line between the two, and at the same time how different they are. Obviously, the original artwork is showing the bath and the boat as a whole, together. So that is also why I chose just one key element.

The subject public and private is very hot topic right now. Especially online. People are very concerned about their privacy and their personal information. So, I definitely see a link to the new technologies with the subject of my work. Because, as much as we would like our personal information to be locked up safe in a room, we all know it is out there on the water for everyone to see.

During my research I also found other contradictions for the bath and the boat. Obviously, they have different functions, but another example is, their positon. The thing about a boat is that it can move and that it can take you places. A bath on the other hand is set in stone. It is built in and meant to be in the exact spot that it is. There is no movement. It can't leave. A boat can, a boat is more about its surroundings and its position.

Then I started thinking about what makes them the same, and with which elements one could attach them together. The element water plays the biggest role. The materials are altered to it, and so it the shape. People are meant to be in it. Only thing is a boat is bigger and meant for more people. That is why a boat has seats. A bath does not. Because a bath is inside and a boat outside, the weather also plays a role. In the winter people do not really go out on the lake with their small boats for an afternoon, this is what people do when the weather is nice. Of course, with big boats on the sea it's different, but that is not important right now. And so that is why for the copy I wanted to do something with the materials.

So, getting back to the materials, they are also different. But, both are very strong. So, I started looking at materials that work well with water yet are soft and easy. Plastic, sponges, aluminum foil, cling film I used to try to create new shapes. That is how I came to the idea to make a bathtub from paper, but to wrap it in cling film to protect it from the water. Because first I thought I want to make a boat/bath shape from a sponge. So I bought a sponge and cut it in pieces, Then I tried to glue them together and I realized this would not work because the sponge absorbed the glue. Then I thought I could make the pieces a whole by wrapping them in cling foil. Only now it was not the shape I wanted. Then I decided to make it out of paper and then wrap that in the cling foil. I wanted it to be soft and vulnerable, because I wanted it to be the opposite of a real bath and boat. For it to reflect on how vulnerable our privacy is, like I was saying before. So, this is what I made as my reproduction from the original artwork and it is based on the texture and the idea.

For my group

Speculative Future

For Larissa, who has chosen the artwork: White Aphrodisiac Telephone by Salvador Dalí (1936), I made a future phone. With the original artwork, the lobster on the phone, for me, is the one telling the user something. The lobster is giving information, it is communicating with us, in a way that is difficult to comprehend. And because the work I made was focussed on the future, I chose to let the lobster show us, instead of telling us. Because it is the future and the way we communicate with each other is going to change. So I made a binocular in the shape of the lobster and that can be used to see whatever it is the lobster would want to show.

Contrafactual Past

For Andres, who has chosen the artwork: Shirt Wrapped on Tailor Mannequin by Christo (1958), I made a piece of yarn from the past. With the original artwork the shirt on the mannequin was wrapped with yarn and after that is was painted, to become more of a whole and to be able to stay in that quality for a long time. So the materials the artist used were very soft, light and flexible and so it was easy to create the shapes in the fabric. So I thought what if the used material wasn't light and soft, what if it was already hard and painted. Thus I painted a spool of yarn with this idea in mind. How would the artwork have looked then, would it have broken or would it have taken much longer to make the work?

Reproduction from texture and idea

The final work I named: Wrapped tub on water.

And that is because it is the shape of a real bathtub and I wrapped it in plastic wrap. And thus it is waterproof and able to float on water, which is what I would want it to do. That is how I envision it.

Contemporary transformation

For my final work I made a series of photo's and then made a website where they are to be shown.

My website

Blueprint

For the blueprint I used the code from the website I made, and added shapes to it. These shapes I made from drawing outlines on the origional artwork.

Research

So during my research I was interested in the contradiction of the original artwork. And so I started thinking of other contradictions of the bath and the boat. And came to public and private, this was to me the most interesting so I continued on that.

These are some images

Research visualisation

Final presentation

I brought the inflatable boat to the expo, because I wanted it to be a part of the way I presented it. But this object is not my contemporary transportation, I used it as a prob to visualize the difference between a bath and a boat and I wanted to use it as something that is in between those two. But it is really about the pictures on the website that I made. That is the final transformation.