Sippin' Ichiban
Book, plywood, metal supports, screws, nails, rubber cement, paint, fishing wire, tape, newsprint, ink, cardboard squares, brass faucet, bottle of Kirin Ichiban.
2020 height x width Part of the assignments given for my 2020 Concepts, Creativity, and Studio Practice class with Marc Brotherton at Kennesaw State University.
Artist StatementWhen I was given this assignment, my first idea came to me that very morning. I had been looking around for beer brewing kits, and I had heard the phrase “drunk on reading” at some point in my life. However, upon further research, this phrase doesn’t exist on the internet. I do know how the term applies, though - Don Quixote’s madness was made by reading a lot of fantasy novels. Something like that.
My favorite part of making this piece was working with my dad in the garage. He taught me to use power tools while we worked, and it was a lot of fun. Specifically, using the hand power saw and the table circular saw. We drilled through the book with a wood bit to set the spigot into the pages, which was a lot of fun, and scared Odin out of the garage. Odin is our German Shepherd, and he doesn’t like the vacuum, which is probably why he ran away, but that’s beside the point. I chose two specific pages from the book, the title page and the chapter for “self-control.” I thought the self-control page would go well with the bottle of beer, as it could be read two ways - either as a testament to a samurai’s discipline, or an ironic statement critiquing alcohol abuse by so-called “virtuous” figures. The haikus and samurai-related vocabulary were thrown in for flavor, to drive home the Japanese feeling. That same logic applied to the beer bottle used - Kirin Ichiban. Personally, I would have preferred a Sapporo bottle for this project, but my roommate preferred Kirin, so I guess beggars can’t be choosers. |
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