The swan sculpture that we have constructed is a three dimensional embodiment of the numerous ideals of transformation that we familiarised ourselves with throughout the course of the semester, and a visualization of utilizing the skills we learned in class to analyze the movie ‘Black Swan’ thoroughly. However, this piece incorporates ideas beyond the scope of the movie as well, which precisely serves as the reason why we have carefully crafted this artwork to be our capstone project.

We aimed to make explicit the concept of duality portrayed in the movie ‘Black Swan’, where the main character Nina faced the issue of two starkly contrasting characteristics. The fragile and innocent Nina, nurtured by her mother's overarching expectations, was unable to fully express herself as a sensual black swan. However, as the movie progresses, we see that this raw need Nina has to achieve perfection and approval would prove to be her demise as her obsession led to multiple hallucinations. As the weight for the strive of perfection as well as the battle of dominance between the black and white swan begin to test the limits of her sanity, we can see that the element of duality runs prominent in this movie alongside the message it is trying to convey. As a rather obvious interpretation, we used both the colours black and white, eliminating the challenge of understanding the overwhelming conflict between the two personalities.

The homogenization of these the black swan and the white into a single sculpture is a further reference to the movie, where Nina envisions herself to be stabbing her evil twin, an action committed in an attempt to regain control of the black swan. However, it was later revealed that it was herself that she had actually wounded herself. This imagery would lead to the conception of the idea that one cannot live without the other, that the removal of one is impossible without hurting the other as they are much too intertwined. We recreated this idea through a color gradient of the black merging into white, in which we are able to personify the concept that the two are melded as one. This revelation allows us to again realise that during the process of the transformation, both sides of the Swan coexists within Nina and are continually present in one body, similar to the concept of yin and yang in Chinese culture. Unlike the yin and yang, however, the black and the white swan have yet to secure the balance in which its interconnectedness would be complementary and not destructive towards the body.

The use of recycled materials to create our sculpture further portrays the sense of disorder and overwhelming chaos within the body coming together to embrace the identity of a black swan whilst still maintaining a perfect exterior as is portrayed by the white swan. We consider the process of handpicking the materials needed to create the sculpture as a transformation in itself. We first intended to use clay as the raw material, but through giving it further thought, we grew conscious of the idea that using recycled materials would be a more accurate representation of the ideas behind this project.

As seen from the photographs attached above, its lower body was carved into a curved shape out of pieces of styrofoam. Its tail contains styrofoam pieces as well as used cardboard boxes, while its neck and head are put together through the use of used newspapers and empty plastic bottles. The entire body is then wrapped in plastic before it is spray painted with black and white paint. The significance of overlaying the black paint starting from the top of its head spreading to the rest of its body is to symbolize that the transformation and embodiment of the black swan character was triggered by the mind. This brings another dimension to the idea that mindset is an important factor to Nina’s transformation, and mindset can be influenced by external factors such as the pressure faced by Nina from the director and her mother.