I have finally taken new photos of two of my large metal sculptures. Narcissus vertebrata is easily one of my favorite sculptures that I have made up to this point. It started as a self-portrait, as a thinker (you can decide how you want to relate the imagery to myself) but it turned into this interesting human-plant hybrid. Maybe this is how plants will evolve to fill our places on Earth. I spent a long time welding the spine together. Despite what most people think, the spine is made using a completely additive oxy/acetyl welding process and is not cast. It took me a long time to make it, I will not say how long because that is not impressive or interesting. This is also how I was using the plastic wrap originally. Plastic wrap came to me as a sculpting material from my father and my work in my parents gallery. At one point we made a switch from packing artwork with adhesive tape to plastic wrap for obvious reasons. While in a sculpture class I was making forms out of chicken wire and found myself in want of a skin, a surface. This is how my heat application of the plastic wrap began.
Echo vitis is another larger metal piece that has been sitting around my studio for quite some time. The face was my first delve into sheet metal shaping. It was all done cold with a few different kinds of hammers. This was an incredibly fun and frustrating process. I started with a pristine piece of sheet metal and just started going to town on it with a hammer. As the face, more of a mask, started to take shape, I was taken back to making charcoal drawings, defining form with light and shade rather than line. While also a method of relieving stress, this sculpture, like Narcissus, was a further investigation into the relationship between vestigial human features surviving in a plant based world of the future. This is also why I related the two sculptures by name. For some better looks at both of these sculptures you can visit this page.
UPDATE: I also installed Red Queen's Race on the collector's property. I snapped some photos and it really looks like a forest spirit to me. I want to make more large sculptures to go outside. I love how it interacts with the environment. To see another few photos of this on site installations you can scroll to the bottom of this page.
This video is the culmination of an idea for an installation I could have never pulled off on my own (please watch video before reading).
This project is one of the most fun adventures I can remember working on for a while. Not only did I get to help produce a movie, of which I have watched a countless number, but I also got to work on this project with a good friend and fellow artist Stuart Lantry. I have had the awesome pleasure of sharing a studio space with Stuart over the past year. He has been a great motivator and creative companion, always down to shoot the shit and talk about art and our work. Making this installation and video with him was an amazing collaborative experience that I plan to relive in the future.
I am currently living in Norwich, Vermont about a half mile from the bridge that takes you into Hanover, New Hampshire where Dartmouth College is located. About 100 feet from my house, as I walk to work, I pass this decrepit skeleton of a houseboat. Houseboat is a rather generous description of the structure, it is a pipe frame of a tent attached to a plywood floor on three very large pontoons. It has been there on the same spot, right where the river comes next to the road, for as long as I can remember. This structure has probably sat there for at least ten years garnering garbage, weeds, spiders, and disrepair. Don't get me wrong, this houseboat is not really an eyesore. It is beautiful in it's own right, interesting shapes are formed by the bare architecture of the tent structure, it is slowly being reclaimed by nature. The Houseboat (I like to call it a Houseboat because it really brings it to a more mystical, livable place in my mind) is situated directly beneath the only street light along a good stretch of road and accordingly attracts a lot of insect-life when it gets dark out. This attracts spiders to the structure who use the pipes of the Houseboat to spin strategically placed webs that provide the most plentiful bounty. This also made for perfect lighting in the video.
We started working on the installation at about 2:30AM, four days before the opening of our POD show together. At first we were cautious. We ducked behind the structure every time a car drove by (there were four), so as not to be too conspicuous. We were very quiet and careful of speaking to each other about logistics and composition. The lady who owns the property that we were trespassing on lives across the street from the lot and we kept an eye out for lights and sounds coming from that direction. The crickets and frogs were loud.
By about 4AM, maybe a little after, we finished the installation to our content. At that point we were so reckless and nonchalant and giddy about the whole situation that we stayed around an extra 15 minutes to get some glory shots of the work and some slow pans.
As we were deciding to leave we heard another car coming and thought it bad to break our streak so we hid behind the structure again. This time, however, the car pulled straight into the lot. They lingered, not making any noise. I decided to poke my head out to see what they could possibly be doing and was greeted by a pair of search lights coming from the cars. My immediate response was to jab Stuart and say, "We need to stop hiding, RIGHT NOW." The police greeted us and patted us down, found nothing. They inspected our hiding spot, found nothing. All of our tools and materials were splayed out on the grass in front of the structure. We explained that the installation was for an art project, that it was totally non-destructive, and that we could take it down as soon as needed. The police officer called in our IDs and then told us to start taking it down. I asked the officer if we could wait until sunrise to take it down so as to document it in the light. He responded with a curt no, so we took down the installation. It took about five minutes. He then he said we could "carry on."
We walked back to my house not knowing whether we were in any kind of trouble or not. The policeman had taken down our names and addresses but had not given us a ticket or a summons or anything. Still trying to figure out what happened, we watched Easy Rider until 6:30 AM and then went to our respective beds. The structure stands now as it did before, but every time I walk past it I do not feel longing or potential, I feel accomplished and giddy about what was there only for a short time. A part of me wants to to do it again to see if I can get away with it. I need to do this more.
Gallery view of Ephemera. All plastic wrap was recovered from the original installation and is on display with the video.
I have installed eight of my cocoons on the west wall in the top of the Hop. They get some beautiful natural light throughout the day and are lit handsomely at night; more pictures to come of views in the evening under electric lights. I am happy with them, they are not where they were originally going to be, but that remains to be seen. I am interested to see what they look like next to other pieces of art from the Hood museum.
detail
When I installed them, there was this great late afternoon light that cast colors from one of the cocoons onto the wall behind it.
I have just about finished making the cocoons that will go up in the Top of the Hop, hopefully sometime next week. You can see cocoons 13-22 on the Plastic Wrap page. While working, I tried out a cocoon using only blue and transparent wrap and this sparked an interest in seeing what more of these looked like. So these are my first set of "monochrome" cocoons.
I also rediscovered a picture of the first cocoon I ever made on a folding chair. At the time it was just a study in plastic along with this other one of a wrapped stool. I might go back to the stool though. An interesting shape, multiple surfaces, more sculptural, free standing.
I have been working non-stop making more Cocoons for my installation in the Top of the Hop. They are coming along, but while I am making them I enjoy finding special moments and taking them out of context. The colors, lines, and shapes are wonderful to look at and my iPhone takes some pretty decent pictures. Here are some from early in the series as well as a few details of the new ones. All is revealed through heat and time.
Hello and welcome to my blog/website!
My name is Bogyi Banovich and I am an artist returning to NYC in September 2013 from Hanover, New Hampshire where I have been essentially tucked away for the past 6 years. Please bear with me while I finish editing and adding all the pages. For now, here is something to look at: some in progress detail photos of my plastic cocoons.
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