Artefacts and Bones

 The artefacts that I have been making have been ebbing away from tools, looking more like seed pods and bones of some unknown animal. I like the idea of bone- like found objects that have no clear use or origin, so I bought some porcelain to work into imitations of bones, and I also prepared my terracotta objects for casting. My plan initially was to cast them in marble dust and resin, but marble dust has it's own history and temperament that isn't really that relevant to what I am thinking about. I'm wanting the cast objects to have a kind of white translucency that intimates something bodily with it's appearance. I also started thinking about using sand, earth or salt in the casting. There is the potential problem that this would separate from the resin in an unsightly and unnatural way, but I'm open to experimenting with it and seeing what potential it has. There may also be a way for me to sculpt sand or earth or salt directly instead of casting it. Maybe using some kind of vacuum technology. I'm very interested in the idea of using salt, earth, sand, and even sugar, although I'm moving away from that slightly because there are qualities and connotations to the sugar that I don't like, such as it's stickiness, and I wouldn't want the viewer of my work to interpret it as me making some kind of pun about sweetness. That doesn't interest me. It's not the flavour, or even to some extent,  the edibility of the material that interests me, It's the cultural significance, what it represents, the labour involved in it's harvest and processing, and the effect that it has on people.

The above image is terracotta objects that I have covered with PVA to ready them for silicon mould making, Below is the beginning of my experimentation with porcelain.The larger pieces evoke hip joints or knees for me.It's a surprisingly long process making them, and the porcelain is high maintenance because it dries quickly and every mark made is highly visible. It's difficult to not make the longer bones look phallic, which is definitely not what I am aiming for and I wouldn't like it to be interpreted in that way.