orange

David Fumigenes | Deconstructing David (new person I am interested in)

So, I don't have a pen right now so I will just post a thinking blog insted.

I have been thinking about the work orange, and I am starting to wonder if the smoke bomb is relevant that I have been making. I think I have in a round about way come back to first ideas for making the project.

The orange lines were a way to draw a line of connection to places that I am attached to.

I started in my house, first with projection, to test the idea.

I was pleased with the tests.

Now, I think it is time to move away from the projector.

I moved to creating lines by drawing them in the place, physically.

Then I ran across material issues, it is literally impossible to do right now, as I can't find an orange organic, green friendly product that could possibly cover as much ground as I needed.

Ground here, meaning physical, not mental groundings for the project.

So I moved on to this idea as sculptural line, smoke.

I made the first test smoke bombs, tracking down KNO3, (potassium nitrate, can be sold as "stump remover", sugar, baking soda, and fuse.

FUSES

I designed my own fuses using a kleenex, KNO3 and sugar. Pretty simple, haven't failed me once yet. However, the fuse itself is very powerful, and somewhat scary.

FUSE TRIAL ONE:

The first one lit in a jar I was holding in my hand. I had figured it would be like a matchstick situation, jar would contain it. Yet, the fuse, FUSE, ignites and burns like a superheated sparkler. (dumb for not considering that on my part)

With a few burns hitting the skin, I started running outside with it and set it on my balcony.

The Fuse went out, everything was good.

FUSE TRIAL TWO:

After feeling confident with my first fuse test, I decided to show off the fuse skill to Anna, Dusty, and Brandon.

This time, clearly being much more fuse wise, I placed the fuse in the jar on the balcony. Fail proof. Well, the fuse ignited, and as it burned everything seemed good until it reached inside the glass. Then the glass jar exploded.

This was my most successful unsuccessful trial. Through this I have measured that the fuse is reaching temperatures around 400 degrees. Good to know. This also means that it is a good source to use for the bomb.

SELF-ENGINEERED SMOKE BOMB TRIAL ONE:

The first bomb was made on my stove in my spaghetti pot.

The measurements required were in measurements of grams. 60gKNO3, 40gSugar.

I didn't have a scale so I converted the measurements to ounces.

so 60g of nitrate is 2.4 ounces, or maybe 2.14 ounces. Don't know, it's in my notebook.

And the 40g sugar was roughly 1.2ounces.

I figured there are 8oz in a cup, so i used my 1/4 cup measurement from the kitchen.

I figured each 1/4 of a cup has 2 oz. The nitrate was a little over the top of the line for the 1/4cup, and the sugar was a smidge over half way full.

Then I mixed those on low heat in the spaghetti pot, until the sugar caramelized and made the mixture resemble peanut butter. Then I added one packet of orange clothing dye, and baking soda, and funneled it into a toilet paper roll.

PROBLEM: The error lies in a shortage of dye, AND the mold. When the mixture was setting in the toilet tissue holder, I was supposed to stick a fat pen in the center to leave a place to put the fuse. I didn't have a pen then either, so I used a knife. When the mold dried, I could not get the knife out. Feeling confident it would just be a knife in a smoking cloud, I left it, and put a home made fuse winding up it. Added tape around the whole thing (black), and left small hole at top.

Trial ready.

went to loose park, document with camera.

The smoke bomb lit well, wasn't all too smokey, and then exploded. Worse than the jar. The steel knife was blown into two parts A)blade B)handle, which was also blown open.

I suppose it superheated, mass ignited the bomb all the way through the center, and it exploded, which had enough force to break the knife.

IN BETWEEN TRAIL 1 and 2

Feeling confident I resolved the first issues, I made a second one. In between learned how to use Dusty's medium format, shot a roll, scanned them, and worked on editing styles. Also, jumped the gun and bought wood for frames, 4 17X17 cedar frames.

Smoke Bomb Trial 2

Feeling confident that I should try my first photograph for printing, I headed out to a location I liked with the bomb and same fuse, camera, self. I lit the smoke bomb and positioned myself on the car with the camera. F2.8 at 20. It was almost five p.m. This bomb was twice as large as the first one mind you. I doubled the recipe and dye. Bigger is better.

I worked at the first location for awhile, but felt that the wind wasn't working with the space after much consideration.

Then I drove down to the Argentine District to an open field with multiple round water towers in the background.

I lit the smoke bomb and positioned myself on the car with the camera. F2.8 at 20. It was almost five p.m. This bomb was twice as large as the first one mind you. I doubled the recipe and dye.

Being alone this time, I lit the bomb and ran to the camera on the car. The fuse went well, but the flame looked very large, a little too large. Then the smoke bomb lit, and was not orange, at all, even a little, but smoked. Then I noticed the large flame was the fuse had become larger, and that the field was on fire.

I jumped off the car, grabbing the camera, and fumbled the camera while trying to run closer, taking haphazard shots. As I got closer, passing cars began stopping and watching. This looked like no smoke bomb, it looked like a field starting to go up in blazes. I panicked, I had no extinguisher, no phone, nothing. Oh yeah, all the cars on the road decided to pull over and watch this entire "happening".

I started trying to stomp out the fire, dancing. Finally, with melted shoes it went out. The cars left, and I took the last images of a charred circle where the bomb was.

So much for that.

WHY SMOKE BOMB, WHY LOCATIONS, WHY.

Well I have come to believe I like these locations because they give me the feeling of home. I feel that I have a right to these places because I like them so much. When I was growing up we moved towns along the Missouri, from the region of St. Louis to the Hermann Mo area. In in those towns, we moved houses. My idea was home was in more of my personal belongings, and in my self and family. I spent a lot of time exploring these places, because none of them got old to me. I began to go back to places where there was nothing around, or where I had separation from the constructions and confinement of people. These places grew to me, and I felt a connection with them that made me feel exactly the same as if I were at home.

So the idea was to go to all of these places and see what they were calling for. If something is missing in piece of work you are doing, and you can't figure out what it is, in time it will reveal itself. So I sat by one place that I like to go and waited to see what it was telling me it needed. ANYTHING.

I decided it just needed a physical connection between me and the environment. I thought that orange was the most sensual color I had come to recently, and decided to stray from white. NOW I'm not sure, I like white. It's my favorite. I would wear a white dress every day all day if I could. White wardrobe.

Anyway. So I created orange lines.

Now I'm thinking fire extinguishers.

Place multiple ones in a row in the locations I like, and set them off.

With my idea of home, and home being in my possessions, I realized that I have hoarded every tiny everything that gave me feelings of home. When I moved recently I realized I had an entire back porch "studio" that was unusable because it was stuffed with these things. Every life magazine I've ever used in my work, every sketchbook I've ever had, every writing, picture, boxes of letters to me. I realized that I don't need these things. I have kept them because they are things that give me a sense where I know I belonged in that place at that time. It is evidence of my existence in that space at that one moment.

So, this seems to be close to the line projections.

BUT, I have decided I will now throw away all of those things, I am going to just blindly throw them away. If I look at them, I can't let them go, but if I don't look, I can't seem to even remember specific things which I can't live without.

So I am going to get rid of these things, and rely on memory. Extinguishing the space deals with disconnection. Disconnection from all of the towns I lived in, disconnection from every home I had know. The house my parents live in now is in a town I have never lived in, in a house I have never lived in. Home exists where I make it now. So the fire extinguishers would be extinguishing the place. Getting rid of those connections.

This deals with the issues I had on creating/altering/destroying space and place.

So this would be create, alter, destroy at once. So I think if all of that is happening it must be birth.

Birth is the only thing that can do all three, and death.

Birth

create=new person, new life, new connections

altering=changing lifestyles for the family, constant identity change until death, learning, experience.

destroy= can destroy other connections, can destroy everything that existed before birth, the unknown is lost, and realized in a new way. born again.

Death

create=new connections

altering=lifestyle, emotion

destroy=something entering nothingness

So I would be creating, altering, and destroying, creating birth, and death, in places where I made my connections, comfort, home.

Physical connection to the places, instead of mental.

The installation acts as an aknowledgment to the space for how much it has done for me.

Balloons applicable

smoke applicable

extinguisher?

extinguishing place.

what does it mean to get rid of something that means so much to you.

I am not getting rid of the place.

I am creating a temporary physical line from myself to the space for a moment in time.

Extinguishing would be creating something where there was nothing, but the something is meant to get rid of something else.

What is the something else.

What is being extinguished.

The unknown of why I like these places?

I'm not sure, but that's where I stand for now. It took me 22 years to figure out why I keep going back to these places, and what they mean to me. It took me 22 years to even realize that my idea of home is different from the traditional idea I had what home should be.

home.