Maquette for a Wall Mural

Vision 9 - Maquette for Wall Mural 

I received several announcements on my e-mail recently for a competition to develop a relief sculpture or painting to be hung on a concrete wall in the new wing of the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau Brunswick (at the Université de Moncton) and I decided to try developing a concept piece for it. I quickly discovered that I would need to acquire further skills in working with heavy materials on a large scale! While looking at this piece, try to imagine it about 15 feet wide instead of its miniature 24 inches! You can see my reflection in the Plexi as I snapped the photo.


Each panel is set apart from the next one by about ½ inch. I used plastic pieces for attaching mirrors to walls and small pieces of wood with wood screws to secure the layers. I learned about assembling them as I went. It took me longer than I expected to work this out, so I did not submit the design. However, it has been a learning experience and has led me to new ideas.


I am planning to use a similar arrangement on my next project, which will involve two trapezoidal wood panels and one rhombus-shaped plexiglass panel. Each panel will project a slightly different distance from the level of the wall. I will be carving and texturing each panel before adding paint in varying amounts.


The Plexiglass catches the light in the carved lines on its surface. As the light changes, so does the effect. The Dremel tool creates a burr, which is read as white dots in the light. Some of this burr detaches easily from the surface, while the rest remains fused by the heat generated with the rotation of the cutting tool. As the viewer moves position, the interaction between the Plexi and the plywood panel underneath also changes. This interaction is only possible when the panels are spaced apart.