Buying Materials

I thought it would be a good idea to arrive at the Gowry Art Institute with some materials in order to start making things right away. For the past few days I have been visiting a local dentist to buy alginate (a material denstists use for casting teeth).

I have very much enjoyed the negotiating time I have spent in his dentistry room. The place is like a cabinet of curiosity, bottles of substances marked poison stand open, minature xrays of broken teeth, mixed up pastes set hard, open syringes, prostetic fingers and other stuff like that knocking about.

The Dentist also makes silicone prostetic implants and false eyeballs so he is able to get hold of some silicone. He told me about a man in the village who had a boil that turned into a degenerate skin disease. The man was left with an open flesh wound on his left cheek. The destist made a face implant piece which the man could hook on with a glasses style ear hook.

The trip has really sparked my imagination and given me a real lift. I am looking forward to getting into the studio.

en suite

Here are some images of the en suite shower room from my hotel in Mysore. So far in India I am finding many of the hotel rooms and other domestic environments very appealing.

I am wondering how an Indian audience will respond to the work I make whilst in residence -  whether the differences I am attracted to will appear mundane or  sterile.

INDIA

I have arrived in India and will be here for 5 months. On the 19th December I will be starting an 8 week residency at The Gowry Art Institute in South India. The institute has a strong emphasis on representing women artists and on exploring work that deals with the feminine and nature. I cannot express how excited I am about this project.

Here are some images of a piece I made while I was visiting the back waters of Karela. I have been drawing alot in India but on this particular day I really wanted to  make something physical. This piece is an idea I have been trying to realize in England. I am bored with this idea. The cage is too big the orb is too small.

In India I feel drawn to making large and colourful installations. Of what I’m not sure.

New Toy

Here are some images of a karella and sweet potato cast in latex and hair. They remind me of a toy I had as a child. The toy was a fluffy pink creature, it had a large loop for a torso which you could stick your hand through. At the end of its tail was a spiky spherical comb. On the top of its head was a single lock of hair.

I am thinking of creating a series of sculptural portraits. I have been asking people I know to donate hair clippings and other discarded body substances. Using these as a starting point I plan to make sculptures, considering shapes, textures and colours I associate with the donor. This is quite a new way of working for me. Before now I have not felt very motivated to make work about particular individuals or human personality traits. Maybe it is because I am going away for 5 months.

closed cast

Metal Cage

A few months ago I went to France in an attempt to learn welding. The idea was to cast a hollow ball trapped inside a distorted cage. For the time being I have shelved this idea. I found it quite difficult and stressful trying to trap the 91 cm balloon filled with wet plaster and compressed air. I didn’t feel that the distorted metal shape was working with the plaster orb. I think the piece might work better trapping the organic egg shape in a more formal, sterile looking cage.

Looking back I should have stopped welding at the photo before this one.

Blood Egg

Below are some images of experiments in casting eggs. The original idea was to cast an egg from a months shedding of uterus lining.

Lost Deposit

Recently I have been fabricating ripe-looking fruit using discharged body substances.

menstruation blood, latex, pubic hair, glue

 

With the fruit objects looking convincingly life-like I wanted to experiment with the forms. Manipulating and distorting the berry shape in an attempt to create an object which was believable on some level but also awkward and uncanny.

So far I have made a wax maquette of a berry claw shape. I am not sure this shape is working well. I should have made a load of drawings before I started casting! I would like to try out coil shapes, loops and also only very slighty elongated forms.

wax maquette

Idea Progression/ Regression

Looking through some photos, I have come across images of incidental object compositions. At the moment I am trying to loosen up the way in which I make installations. In previously work, the original premise of an idea and final realized esthetic have been near identical. I would like to work in a more intuitive, expressive manner. I want to compose objects concentrating simply on things I am attracted to, as opposed to things that make sense as an idea.

studio chair, baby blanket, hair

 

wax berry claw, proctoscope, doily

 

plastic Mary statue, bear necklace, bedroom window

 

 

12 Blood Berries

Here are some mid-way images of cast blackberries in blood and latex. When finished the berries should look at their optimum peak of ripeness and nutritional value.

pouring menstruation blood and latex into cast

 

cast drying

 

open cast

berries straight from cast

berries that have been oxidised over night

 

Plaster Fragment

Fragment from broken plaster ball.