The Art Relief Series
The Art Relief Series
Artwork, photography & words: July Adrichem
Shapes 1–6 is an abstract and playful series of reliefs. The individual shapes converge into one piece of Art, being together apart. The Shapes series will be extended with more variety in the future, in search of a composition that symbolizes life at the present time. Nothing ever stays the same, does it? It’s ever changing in perspective and composition, and certainly doesn’t get old.
I’ve always been drawn to Abstract and Modern Art. Get this right: when Art looks simple, the process behind it usually isn’t at all. I believe that is exactly what Art’s about; exploring complexity and depth. Research and experiments give me so much good stuff to work with.
Inspired by old plaster reliefs that I had been experimenting with in the past, I started researching shapes, materials and (non) colours. For the Relief series I did a study of shapes, drawings and sketches in many combinations. I drew several shapes on one big piece of paper and started cutting them into pieces. I wanted to create a personal puzzle, a playful Art series that could be mixed and matched by each individual’s imagination. The challenge was to keep those shapes simple. I puzzled for days to get what I felt was the right combination. And there they were; pieces of The Shapes series so far, both together and apart.
A little bit later on, I discovered a combination of plaster and cotton fabric to create textured shapes on moulds. I also found out that this mixture got very firm when using layers. The amazing thing about this material is that it looks fragile, but in fact is pretty strong. To connect these layers, the cotton fabric-plaster combination is dipped into water, creating a sticky paste. Then, this layer dries for a while before I apply the next. After the last layer is put into place, the final work reveals the structure of the raw fabric underneath each layer, giving the piece it’s authentic look.
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