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Stunned artwork

I recently finished a piece of art that I made for my dear neighbors of Stunned. They asked me to make something, I was actually completely free to make whatever I wanted!

I knew that I wanted to make something with paper, but I wasn't sure what it would be. It had to have the name Stunned in it, but there had to be more than that. At first I thought of scenery with the name incorporated. It would be like a show-box or a panorama. I figured it would be a private object though, something you would only see if you knew it was there, or if someone told you to look at it. I love show-boxes but I wanted to make something that would be 'out there'.

I remembered that they have one of those IKEA cupboards with the record size squares. It is placed near the entrance of their office. If you were to build something into one of the openings, it would give the same idea as a show-box. The dilemma was to keep the back open or to close it. Eventually I decided it would be best if it was see through.

The whole idea formed into my head at once, not piece by piece. All of a sudden I knew exactly what I wanted to make. Mind you, this took me a little while of letting it sink in. Somehow being able to make whatever you want does not make an assignment easier. It took me a while to figure out how to limit and guide myself.

The plan was to make four sides of a cube, no back and front. It would slide right into one of the openings of the cupboard. Then I would plate the sides with mirrors. Inside it I wanted to make an explosion. At first I thought of all kinds of objects; spiked, clouds, cubes. Somehow I ended up making it with all cubes. The name would be the center of attention.

I wanted to make a sketch, but I realized it was going to be a A LOT of work. I tried to do it in paper first, but was wondering if I could do it more effectively. I tried SketchUp. Well, I can tell you that if you want to learn a whole program to make something complicated.. doesn't work! So eventually I gave up and returned to my paper sketch. It came down to me making that thing twice! Although the paper was easier than the cardboard that I picked for theeventual piece. If you want to make a perfect cube, you need to cut the edges into 45° angles. So that's what I did.

When I finally finished all the cubes and was ready to glue them in, I felt the colors were quite boring. It needed a real bang! I decided to make the bottoms of all the cubes red, with red chromolux paper. The contrast between the cardboard and the shiny chromolux is special.

Eventually it took me about 90 hours to finish this baby. I don't mind though, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I took quite a lot of pictures, they will never show the real deal. That's what you get with 3D objects. They do give an impression though.

This is the front and the back of the piece:

Detail of the name:

This is one of the views you see when looking into a mirror:

In its new spot:

Apparently they were so happy with what I made that they made a post about it on their website too!

I want to thank Erwin and Stunned for working with me!