This page forms part of the continuing sketchbook and studio process archive for the Gravitas Academic Monument — Best Academic Achiever of the Year, a school trophy concept by Pieter Lategan | STUDIO, Pretoria, South Africa.
This second page focuses on the plastic shell and cement fill study. The photographs show a working model placed on the studio table, together with tools, notes, sketchbook pages, material studies and construction references. The object is still in process. It is not presented here as a final trophy, but as part of the visual thinking and structural testing behind the work.
The study explores how a vertical form, a stepped base, a hollow shell, and a central void can hold weight and presence. Within the language of Gravitas, the object is not treated as decoration. It is treated as a small architectural monument: a structure that must carry silence, balance, weight and material seriousness.
The reflective gold and silver surfaces in these photographs are part of the process investigation. They help test form, edge, shadow, visibility and finish before the object is resolved as a final studio piece. The sketchbook pages show colour notes, void studies, ground area planning and material decisions connected to the larger development of the work.
This process is part of my ongoing studio work in Silent Monumentalism and Gravitas, where structure, silence, weight, surface and material presence remain central.
Gravitas Academic Monument — Process Series
This page forms part of a continuing sketchbook and process archive for the Gravitas Academic Monument — Best Academic Achiever of the Year, a school trophy concept by Pieter Lategan | STUDIO, Pretoria, South Africa.
- Part 1: Trophy Base and Mould Study
- Part 2: Plastic Shell and Cement Fill Study — current page
- Part 3: Assembly, Finish and Presentation Study
For the wider studio framework, see Silent Monumentalism principles and Gravitas as a discipline within Silent Monumentalism.
Related archive: Silent Monumentalism Online Handbook.
