My sculpture is my interpretation of the song Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin. It’s a very old folk and blues song from the 1930’s. The theme of the song can be traced back in music the mid-1600. It depicts a man whose to be hung from the gallows and tries to bargain with the hangman. He offers gold, silver, and his sister, which the hangman willingly accepts but still carries out his execution.
Oh, yes, you got a fine sister, She warmed my blood from cold,
Brought my blood to boiling hot To keep you from the Gallows Pole,
Your brother brought me silver, Your sister warmed my soul,
But now I laugh and pull so hard And see you swinging on the Gallows Pole
I started my project by creating an outline for what I wanted it to look like. I drew some rough drawings of the shape of the body and setting, as well as the placement of everything. I then started to create a 3-D sketch with wire to figure out the sizes, dimensions and proportions of the sculpture.
The sculpture is mangled and the circumstances are bad which creates a dark and frightening scene but the colours of the person makes the sculpture easier to look at and not so threatening and alarming to the viewer. This was the intended mood, a light side and a dark side to the sculpture. It creates a contrast to the image.
The roughness of my sculpture represents the maliciousness of the songs lyrics but the fun colours and bright fabrics I used create a beautiful visual that reminds me of the happy, bouncing music displayed in the song. The lyrics are about someone down on his luck, someone feeling the blues but this isn’t displayed in the music of the song, the music is happy quick and very folk influenced. Though the sculpture depicts something dark (the hanging), the mood is lightened by the fabric colours and the position if the body. I used dark, long, curly hair because it reminded me of Led Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page. I pictured Page at the gallows because he was the leader of Zeppelin. When it came to picking fabrics for the person, I used fabrics that I could have seen Page wearing in the late 60’s and 70’s because he was known to wear very bohemian-esque clothing. I used some fabric from the studio and fabric from my house to create the flamboyant figure. I used regular wood lying around my house for the base and pole because it gave the piece an outdoorsy feel that I felt it needed. I pictured the hanging happening in front of all the towns’ people. I got this image from reading Huckleberry Finn in English class, which is also why I chose a hanging. Also, The person is hanging from a rope, which creates a fun atmosphere as well; the rope also creates a line effect that sends the viewers eyes right down the piece.
I found that creating an image before I started the real sculpture was important to the outcome. By drawing out the body forms and the shape of my sculpture. It showed me how to proportion the body better. Drawing the whole figure helped me with the transition to the wire stage. I thought about how you draw the body and created my wire person with that knowledge.
Overall, I found this project difficult and to be the most frustrating because I didn’t really know where to start and what to do. After a while, I got a hold of the sewing but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my sculpture, which was annoying but I really enjoyed the poem/lyric part of the project. It added having to create a concept to bestow upon art.
