Competitive Scholarships 2020 Entry

Ansley Holcombe

Freshman Class of 2023 // Prospective Product Design Major

20l9// "In His Mind"

3D-printing, wood

This replica of my grandparents’ living is a commentary on the effects of 24-hour round-the-clock care via feeding pump, creating a dark, sedentary, and depressing environment to be subjected to. My use of a grayscale and enclosing walls are a means to integrate the viewer into the mindset of a man who is dying, who has been trapped in a failing marriage for 57 years, who is now trapped in a chair, and whose world only stretches the length of an iv cord.

2019// "My Tea is Spilling Everywhere"

3D-printing, wire, sugar cubes, spray paint, glue

An exploration of the subversion of materiality, form, and practicality when creating an English tea set. My goal is for the viewer to visually identify each of the pieces of the set as pieces of a standard tea set, yet for the objects to be paradoxical and humorous in their function. Therefore, each of the pieces of the tea set are subverted so that they no longer serve their intended purpose of containing tea.

2019// "Stories that Made Me"

multi-media installation: fabric, wood, tea lights, fishing line, clothes pins

An installation representative of the process of acquiring and passing down my grandmother's ring that she left to me. Each quilt panel is indicative of one of the three hands that the ring passed through: my great-grandmother's, my grandmother's, and my own. The viewer is meant to travel through these panels to reach a dainty, intricate lantern that mimics the style and details of the ring itself.

2019// "Slip on Her Clothes for Once"

cotton, tulle, 3D-printing

This dress pays homage to the ring my grandmother was given for her thirteenth birthday and then passed down to me on mine. More importantly than the object or its monetary value was how beautiful it made her feel. Therefore this dress is crafted to include elements of the ring's design and its form is true to the "potato sac dresses" that my grandmother would've worn growing up in the Great Depression, but inspires youthful, angelic connotations.

2019// "Nana's Necklace"

3D-printing

Modern rendition of a ring left to me by my grandmother, in a necklace form. The interlocking of chains is representative of the bond we share and the chain reaction that allowed the initial ring into my possession. The inward forming shapes is implication to a movement through time, as the original ring has been passed down through three generations.

2019// "Organized Chaos"

wood, illustration board, POSCA markers, magnets, wire, 3D-printing, yarn

A commentary on the struggle between my personal obsession with organization and keeping things in their designated places, while being forced into a relationship with someone that holds opposite, disruptive values. The magnetic dropping of purses by the crane represents the intrusive "dumping" of material things and values into a space that feels intimate. The magnetic connection of the purses to the board represents my struggle to keep a hold on my space through the disorder.

2019// "Big Heart"

mixed media installation: chicken wire, plaster, acrylic paint, gouache, stretched linen over embroidery hoops, yarn, push pins

This piece explores the metamorphosis of my grandfather’s heart in both physical and emotional ways throughout the stages of his life. I focused on the major transitions from his life as a minor living at home with an abusive father, to life in the military, and finally life as a father and grandfather. My goal in the creation of this piece is narrate the "butterfly effect" of transformations along the course of his life and the physical implications they left him with in the form of congestive heart failure.