Feathers

To try out a new material I tried making animal shapes out of feathers. I first tried the simple bear shape and then made the bird and added some drawn details of the beak and feet to make it more obvious what it represented. I also weaved some in to a doily I had crocheted to look at the combination of materials.

Afterwards I decided to try putting the feathered bear in to collages and used my own photographs for the background scenes. Using photos of my feathered bear was beneficial because I could test out a few ideas without damaging the original but the issue with this was they lost their texture and physical affect. I think one of the biggest differences between these pieces and the other work I have made is the lack of expression as the bear is simplified to a shape. I would like to expand on these and make some bigger scale and better quality pieces.

I also tried the feather idea out in 3D by coating the deer I had previously used to draw from. I think using feathers as part of 3D sculptures is another area I could expand on.

I have been researching an artist collective called Neozoon who work in installation, collage and film and make work surrounding animal activism. A lot of their installation work is made of old fur coats cut in to animal shapes and displayed in public places. In their work 'Das Manteltier' the fur coats are folded and stitched to represent apes and are motorised to also move.

Link to Neozoon's work: http://www.neozoon.org/FUR-COAT-RECYCLING