Invisible Project

I will continue discussion on the below post soon. For now, I wanted to share my invisible man project. Brian Walker my english teacher assigned a final project with the basic requirements that it had to be 3-D and cover a theme of the book. For my project I started by creating a white box-like back drop. Next I shaped and cut metal mesh to create a cage around the clay sculpture I made of  T.I.M. -- The Invisible Man, a young black man at the time. My next step was attach the cage to the backdrop by pushing the pointy edges of the cage in, trapping Tim inside. After this I modeled a much larger face out of jet black as opposed to the light brown I used for Tim. I created the face to mirror stereo-typical caricatures of black people in the early twentieth century as well as black face actors. I attached this face to the outside of the cage above Tim's smaller body. The last part of my project was to create an "optic white" paint can. Inside the paint can all the paint looks white except showing through this illusions is a small black drop made of clay. The clay drop stretches into a thin line connected to Tim's hand from inside the Cage. attached to the backdrop will be significant quotes from the book. 

--> Now for the symbolism


The paint can and the white box backdrop are both symbols of American society at the time and institutional power that was held by white people and that oppressed minorities. The paint reference is taken out of the book. Tim works briefly at Liberty Paints, a company who specializes in white paints used to cover up monuments and other symbols of a "white United States". However, the key ingredient in the paint is a black base. In the book, this seems to be a metaphor for how the strength and wealth of the white dominated society comes from the sacrifice of black people. In the project the black paint droplet connects to tim because he is part of that droplet that is the sacrificial lamb of white society. Meanwhile Tim is stuck behind his cage prison. This is another symbol for the sacrifices he is forced to make in order to please those in power, never allowing him to achieve his own goals. The ridiculous face that is on the free side of the cage is showing how nobody sees Tim on the inside but only this caricature of a human being. When they look at tim they only see black and so he is rendered invisible.


Sorry if you haven't yet read the book but you should check it out! Ask questions and Discuss the significance of the book and the project or any of your own project ideas-  Thanks!!