User:L. van de beek

Lieve van de Beek

Images from intro-week

Fantastic forgeries

Grotesque , Anonymous , 1850-1900, Bronze patina over lacquer

Getting to know him

When I was walking around in the museum I saw this little guy and felt or him. He is small but the way he looks he has a big personality but still he looks to me like a scared and alone creature. He is weird and not a known animal. He has legs of a bird a body that looks like a snail shell and head that can be a dog,dragon or frog like creature. I saw him in the intro week and didn't really looked at the information about him so a few days later I went to see him again at the Boijmans. Then i saw that on the information bord of his display there was only info about 3 items and in the display where 4 objects. So I went to the information desk and they didn't know what he was he also was not on there only archive. But a bit old sercuriy guard that had worked long at the Boijmans helped me and he was almost certain that he was the Grotesque by Anonymous from 1850-1900. This was still not real information for me because what can I find about anonymous?

This was a start of some fun and interesting research moment!

I first started trying to search with Boijmans in my head en the the : Grotesque or grotesk beest and I found this photo. Its a sort of 3d photo.

Brons Boijmans 3D, wim hoppenbrouwers, 2014

This was stil not more information about the object so I went on searching on google,pinterest,flicker and tumbler. I started to try make different kinds of words to use to search online. I tried just using Grotesque this didn't really work so I used other words next to it like bird, beast or something like that then i thought of hybrid. I will go more in to the word hybrid later on. But with the combo Grotesque hybrid i finally found something in google images. If you look at the animal on the right there is an animal that looks a lot like the little guy of the Boijmans. ( I am still thinking about giving him a name so I can talk easier about him)

Twee monsters bereden door apen, Arent van Bolten, ca. 1604 - ca. 1616

So seeing this was for me the feeling that my search really started now. I went to the site of the image it was a blogspot of someone that had a page about Groteskology. And there it said that the drawing was from a Dutch artist named Arent van Bolten. And it had lots of other drawings of wears animal like creatures and information about him. ( im going to make a small page about him) Then I went searching again but with his name trying to find more about him and images. On Pinterest i found an images of a statue just exact the same as the one at the Boijmans. it was again on someones blog and it said it was in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. So i went on there site and found him again. I search further and found another and another and another.

Rijksmuseum 1610-1630, Victoria& Albert Museum 1600-1650, Harvard Art museum 1610-1630, the Detroit Institute of Arts 1610-1630, Auction site Artnet 1596

I went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to look if he was really the same creature. Before I went I looked up where I could find him in the museum on the site. The are starting to put there hole collection online. You can look at art work and zoom in en make your own digital collection which is much fun! Here is a link to there site direct to the Grotesque statue

Grotesque on Rijksmuseum.nl.

When I was looking around on the site of the Rijksmuseum and I went to there online shop just for fun to have a look what they sell. And guess what?!?!?!?! He is for sale as replica in the shop! I was so surprised! So when I was at the Rijks I couldn't help myself and bought him in the name of research!

on the online shop, on display in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, on display in de museum shop, my own Grotesque replica

description of him

To make a replica i must observe him and try to make a good description to work with as well. First I want to scan him analoge with my eyes. I am going to try to find out ,out of which parts of animals he is made of. And now I have my own replica from the shop I can have a close look at him.

On the online shop they have made a description of the animal. The description is :The body of a snail, the legs of an ostrich, a head that is birdlike yet human: the silversmith Arent van Bolten was fascinated by such bizarre monsters, as is evidenced by his numerous design drawings and prints. This statuette may have once served as an incense burner or an oil lamp.

Legs

If i look at his legs they look like bird like legs. In the folder of the museum shop they describe him to have legs of a ostrich. So I'm looked up some pictures of ostrich legs for comparison. The legs look a like but his feet of the grotesque has 3 toes and a ostrich only 2 in the front of the foot. So the legs ar much like the ostrich tall with muscles but the feet are not the same. The feet also have skin between the toes it looks more like a water bird like foot.

Body

The body is covered with a shell but what kind of a snail shell it also is the same on both sides so its very unusual. I'v looked up some shell examples. And the shape is more like fossils of shells. The one that looks most like the shell body is the fossil of an ammonite.

Head

When I look at the head it makes me think of the Chinese statues of lions and how there head looks like.But i can't be quiet sure because in the shop folder it says its bird like, maybe because of the way of his expression like a hungry little bird.

Trying to find similar objects and images

To get some ideas of in what kind of way i want to replicate my object I tried to find object and images that could fit in the same category. So the images i found our very diverse and can look just the same but can also have just some elements. I already had found the same all over the world like i told in the beginning in the section : Getting to know him.

Here are drawings and other images that made me think of him, with for starters of course the drawing of Arent van Bolten. And i found images from all kinds of periodes from old till new that have the same essence as him. The second image is a drawing of Christoph Jamnitze he lived in the same period as Arent van Bolten and was a goldsmith almost the same profession as van Bolten. You can see clear similar shapes in the drawings. the third image is a detail of something in a book from the 16th/17th century. The fourth image is a drawing from 1545–1560 and they are attributed to Andrés de Melgar. They are sketches for ornaments on buildings. The fifth image is a drawing by Peter Holtswijller from 1565 its a design for a trophy or something like that. The sixth image is from our century. Its a illustration of Rovina Cai she made a collection of illustrations of mythical creatures this images is of a Simurgh ( a dog/bird like creature). Image number seven is a sort of collage the creature has bird legs and head and a body of what looks like a bullet, the tail of the creature is some sort of leaf. And the last image in the row underneath is a artwork of Benedetta Bonichi she makes al kinds of images with X-rays. And this artwork looks like a human/bird hybrid. This artwork gives me inspiration for what i want to make I like the idea of making something mythical more realistic. This artwork gives the idea this creature is real and this is a real xray of it.

If i imagen how he acts i think he has the same funny character as Kevin in Up. Here is Kevin in a little gif where he is some sort of annoying smart ass. Also Kevin thinks he is the superior.

And I also found pictures of objects that have same elements. The first image is a Nautilusbeker from around 1600 so from the same time as the Grotesque statue but this one is way more luxurious. Gold a precious shell and great details. But it it has bird legs, shell body and a bird head that looks like the grotesque but with a glamoured look. The second image i found , I have chosen it because of that its a lamp. Because at the Rijksmuseum they think the statue may have been used as a oil lamp. The third image is a window display of Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton has been working on very creative displays the last few years, its always fun to see a new one. Here they display there bags on sort of table's with bird legs, it looks like the bags have legs and they can just walk away. For me the Grotesque Hybrid is already alive in my head so seeing the robotic bird like thing in the fourth image it makes me think of him walking around maybe in the second stage of the assignment. In the fifth image its like somebody already gave him more life , which makes me think again of Kevin in up all those bright colors. The sixth image is a taxidermy artwork with the name : the bird that couldn’t fly. IF you look at others they are actually almost al birds that can not fly what is a weird and sad thing. Birds should fly so if they can't are they still birds? If we play with evolution i think my creature will become like the seventh image. A sort of robotic version that replaced parts of himself with spare parts of other robots.

Its pretty hard to find good similar objects so there are also images that are sort of similar or far far family of my object. The first image in the row below is the same sort of object as the first object in the row above. Only this object is from 1970. The sec on image is an old artifact from 200 B.c this object is a bear with turtle shell. Its not like m creature but i think they have the same essence strong animal character in a shell. The third image is for my a abstract representative of my object. Because you have a birdcage in shape of a shell with a small bird in it. It's the pet/homedecor version of the grotesque. The fourth is just a similar to a detail of the grotesque its the shell part that looks like the Ammonite shell. And it becomes sort of a hybrid by being part of a human face its a sort hybrid hairstyle. Then with the fifth you see taxidermy hybrid art by Thomas Grunfeld. It's not really like my Grotesque but this hybrid Ostrich/cow has the same clumsiness and weird look as the grotesque. The last image is a picture of some bookstands I found on ebay the are bookstands from 1920 Art Deco style. The birds on the bookstands look like they could walk of the stands and just go on walking like Kevin from Up.

And you can almost find gifs about everything even someone made one of the sketches of Arent van Bolten with the Grotesque.

Hybrid

In research class we made a sort of mind-map about our object. We had a big paper and we had to write down things we thought where the most important thing about the object. And out of this mind-map i found out that the most interesting thing was that the creature statue was a hybrid animal. So the word hybrid was the most interesting and important but what is the meaning of hybrid?

So hybrid is about combining to elements together that are different form each other. With this in mind I tried to find images in all kinds of design and media. Sinds i'm from fashion i will start with som designers/collections that have the hybrid vibe.

This is the fall/winter 2014 collection of Thom Brown , I really like his work because of the playful creative story like creations he designs. In this collection he worked with accessories that give the models the look of being a animal/human hybrid (with a Alice in wonderland vibe). I like the way of material use the fabric that is similar in suit and accessories.

But hybrid does not always has to do with animals. In the collection of Natalia Grzybowski, a Sydney-based fashion and textile designer. She made a collection named hybrid. Her creations are something else. The delicate prints are so feminine and soft, yet the garments are so structured and ultra modern.

Also when you look at fashion with hybrid in your mind smart textiles is also a good medium for inspiration an creation. There is a very nice Ted Talk presentation by Lucy McRae that is about the future architecture of fashion. tedtalk with Lucy mcRae She works with technologie&crafts and uses this to make creations of evolutions of the human body.

The work of Ana Rajcevic, is build out of elements of skeleton and other anatomic features. She wanted to make an 'new breed' of jewelry/accessories and also created a new breed of humans in the pictures. For her its a new breed but you can also say a hybrid.

If you look at animals there are artist that really use them as a inspiration or media. Like Thomas Grunfeld who makes hybrid in the form of taxidermy. He takes parts of all kinds of animals and put them together to make new creatures. His work is very mythological,story telling and inspiring for me. I like the way he creates new things with using parts of something else. Also there are other artist that use taxidermy as there work form.( Enrique gomez,Sarina Brewer, Damien hurst,Cedric Lequieze).

the idea of my design of the replica

For me the Grotesque is already real and almost alive but now i want to make it look like it is or was. So what my idea is for my replica to give it a bit of a twist. I want to make a replica that is transparent and show the inside of the Grotesque. I want to create his skeleton with 3d design on the computer with using existing skeleton 3d scans/designs. And I want to use te hybrid meaning in the design using digital crafts and hand crafts in my design. The inside(skeleton) will be probably 3d printed and the outside will be hand made. I want to make a mold of my replica out the shop and make a sort of latex skin copy of the mold. And then i can cover the skeleton with a transparent skin like form to make ik look as the object. I will make a new entry with my proces en experiments. My inspiration of my idea to replicate the Grotesque:

Sketches/illustration of the skeleton :

First i made a sketch by hand in the train. By sketching his skeleton just trying to imagine how it would/could be like in can think what i can use for making his skeleton. I wil paste in to gather with parts of all kinds of animals and wil try to find 3d models of them. first i want to try it simply in illustrator just a simple fine sketch. here for i used live trace on drawings of skeletons i found online and took parts u wanted. I used the legs of a flamingo skeleton illustration , a tail of a chameleon sketch , a ribcage of a bird. By first using live trace i can see the lines of the image then i use expand > select the image and ungroup it so i can take separate lines. And by using a photo of the grotesque on the background I could figure a the scaling of the parts. Its still a bit of a rough sketch but it looks like a weird skeleton. The skull is a bit weird , that is because i used a skull of a dog and put his upper jaw as a lower an the lower as the upper to mimic the mouth.

3D scuplting/printing the skeleton

I have downloaded the free 3d program Meshmixer of 123dapp and started trying to get the shape of the grotesque. And I'm downloading skeleton parts of the human which are free online on there site to use to make the skeleton of the grotesque. And i made a gif of it how it is now 16th of september.

After playing around a bit tryin to get to know mesh mixer I went on working on the skeleton. Because i could only find free 3D models fit for this program to be human bones i decided to work with what i can get. So I used the base of the human foot,ribcage,spine,finger bone and skull models. Here you can see my proces:

When i went to the digital station where i can 3D print I asked what would be best for printing the hole skeleton at the right scale. After looking at my design so far we decided that it would be easier to print the bones apart and put them by hand together. I actually liked the idea of putting something digital by hand together because it feels then more like digital taxidermy (digital vs crafts hybrid technique). So last friday (19th september) I started printing parts. I only just made the feet , the under leg bone and the tail (that is inside the shell). To make the prints there had to be extra material printed to make it possible to get the shapes. Later i had to cut the extra material of with a hot knife. This was very precise work because i could very easily cut in the original print. And it felt lie i was really cleaning fragile bones of a animal fossil.

And at the moment i am working on the rest the bones and wil be printing again on monday 22th of september. And when i have al the bones cleaned and ready i wil start putting him together. And then when i have made the skin a can cover the bones with the skin. Thats why i really want to make a transparant skin so you can see the bones. So i printed the other leg bones and the ribcage. I'm very happy with the scale of everything so far its very fragile looking but also very realistic because of that.

In a discussion at the 3d printing workspace with a classmate I finally found out the name of the little creature. His name is Smyth ,with the myth from mythical creature as in hybrid.

This Wednesday (24th sept) i had finally finished the 3D model of the skull. it was bit difficult to get the rights shape i first tried it with the human skull model but it did not work. So i tired again with a skull model of a dinosaur. And with some changes and time i finally had the right shape. And i tomorrow i will go and check if i can print it.

Yes today i have all the bones printed (the 25th of September). When i came home i cleaned the skull of the rest material. I had to repair some bits because of the thin lines in the skull but it looks great i'm happy with all the parts.

And i now see that i really want to print all the parts again because i want one with all the bones apart and one thats put together. So i made with felt a sort of mat where i have cut out abstract shapes of the bones and put felt underneath so when i put the bones in the right place the stay where they should stay (when in find or make a box where it will fit in).

So I now i have one skeleton totally printed and i wanted to print ale the parts again for the one that i wil put together. And i have had some difficult days with the 3D printer. Monday i wanted to print a gain and one printer didn't print right because of that the cartridge didn't work right so i tried te other Ultimaker but it got overhitted. So eventually i pretend one set of leg bones. And today i went to my appointment to print again but Emiel was sick so i couldn't work at the station. Therefore i went to the fablab but they didn't have the right color white so beter luck next time!

creating the skin

Oke this morning (17 sept) i went to the ceramics workplace to discuss the idea of making a mould of my replica ok the Rijksmuseum. There i found out that because that i don't have any experience with making moulds its not possible to make this without it. And it's also a object thats almost impossible to make a mould af because of the details and weird shaping. If you make a mould it's a mould with at least 5 parts if it was possible with the legs. So I ams trying to figure out what to do. I did make half a mould with :SILLICREATIONS & SILLIS its a sort of diy mould for little things and also used for food moulds. It sort of a clay made of to parts that you mix than apply to the object fold and pressure it in the silicone and let it dry for 2 hours then you take it of and let it dry further for 2-3 days.

Now i'm thinking of maybe just brushing latex over the replica to try to make a skin like thing. But I'm also working on a new idea for the outside of the grotesque. A more display/taxidermy way.

So after talking with Jon about the idea of skin and taxidermy he gave me the name of a studio that maybe could inspire me. Its the duo/studio of Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters the have made sort of birds made with a 'faux' taxidermy technique. And I ams making bone parts of grotesque and put him by hand together and I wil do some tests for the skin inspired by there work and inspired by a moulage technique called Shingo Sato. Shingo Sato on youtube

So this weekend I started to put latex on the replica( of the Rijksmuseum). Tried first on the a little spot to check that there will be no damage. this was ole so i brushed the hole shell part with latex and i let it dry. After it dried I carefully took it of the replica and had a sort of rubber skin where you cane see the bubble shapes of the shell. It is a very soft jelly like thing so it won't hold shape on its own. So i think i need to do other experiments for making the skin.

I tried a new skin experiment with fabric i really like the fragile look of it. and the shapes that i am able to create just by pulling fabric together. I'v started with the shell and also covered the mouth. I covered the parts apart so i can still take them of the replica. And because i used a stiff fabric the shell can stand on it's own and holds shape. I used a little piece of fabric and started putting some pins to keep the fabric in place. Then I started to hand sew parts together and put coupes in place to form around the shell.

Now the plan is to work a bit more precise with this technique and try to take it apart again to make a pattern of the skin. So i can reproduce it in other fabrics and materials.I first tried it again with the transparent fabric but because its a lose woven fabric it shaped around when i started pinning the fabric in certain places. Wherefore i used a sort of white cotton I normally use when i make tests on the mannequin, its beter and more strong material. And then i started pinning places around the shell shape trying to find al the shapes in to the fabric. the pins wouldn't stay in place therefore i started the sew the fabric in place. I did this on only on side of the shell because its the same on both sides. When i had the feeling i found the shapes I went across the sewing with a black pen so when i take it apart i can see what will be the pieces of my shell pattern. Then when i took it apart i scanned it so i can go and trace the lines in illustrator making it bit more sharp. And because i scanned it and made it from the original and printed the pattern on the same scale there is no changes in the size.

Here you can see the proces of shaping the fabric:

Taking it apart:

Then i had the pattern and cut it out of the paper so i had patter pieces. Every pieces has be cut dubbel out of the fabric and the ones with SV has to be cut on the fold line of the fabric. First i chose to make the shell with latex fabric and i made one with construction mesh fabric. The latex one doesn't hold its shape on it own and the mesh is holding shape. I also checked what would happen if i covered the mesh with the latex. Im still not sure so im also going to do a test with a changeant fabric.

This is a test with neoprene fabric, both sides inside en outside are interesting and its holding the shape.

Now i wanted to see how a print cab influence the shape by creating structure. Therefore i wanted to laser cute and grave the pattern of the shell. I looked u aan close up image of a ammonite shell and used illustrator to create lines with live trace. And used this print in the pattern shapes in mirroring effect. And because i wanted to work with neoprene i tested the strengths.

This is the neoprene colors i ams using its 2 color sided so maybe there is some color of the other side that will become visible.

These are the pattern parts with the lines of the ammonite shell:

Next i will go and put them together.

My idea/design of the transformation

I don't know really yet what i want to do but i want to think about transforming my replica idea in a sort of wearable piece. This is some inspiration i found at the moment.

I really love the skeletons with jewels but i don't think i can use this at the moment but maybe i can use it with another assignment!

/ notes