Experiments

The experiments above were exploring the possibilities of clay casting further, trying out small sculptures filled with latex and smashed. The results were kind of interesting because the latex sunk in the middle leaving an interesting sculptural form, but it doesn't excite me, partly because the forms remain covered in the clay and coloured by it, instead of the smashed clay revealing a kind of pearl or gem, as I had been envisioning. 

I started thinking about the idea of microscopic cells, connected to the skin or veins or stomach lining like thorns, thinking of the huge importance of the tiniest cells that populate the body, like bacteria on the skin or the mitochondria, or the way that the reproducing white blood cells swell the glands in response to malignant bacteria. I had the idea of handmaking many small, slightly differing cells in gold or silver, piercing a handmade flesh, but I also worry that the work could err into territory of being too decorative- I think there is a fine balance between an invitation for engagement and something that is too attractive to be really interested in. I don't want to make something that would look beautiful in your living room, I want to make something that opens up a line of enquiry.

Still also exploring the idea of casting the tube, making a mass of writhing passages to carry the bodies information. I was trying out plaster and algenate casting but the brittleness doesn't appeal to me. It feels like it uncomfortably straddles the natural and the artificial, when at the moment I want to be making work that has a material significance. Through making this though, I thought of the idea of layering latex on the outside of a long clay sculpture and smashing it on the inside, shaking, pulling or melting it out. Interesting to think of the actual making of the piece becoming somewhat performative in itself.