Mould making, AF7007
This research builds on my work for Mould making, MF7004 & Mould making, MF7003
10.9.21 I have learnt so much about mould making and casting during my MA. I am extremely grateful to the Sculpture technician, Gareth, who has taught me so much, and also inspired me with conversation and ideas. I feel that I am much more confident about many of the processes involved and hope to be able to continue independently once I've finished.
When I first started making moulds I thought casting was about making multiples of objects, and, of course, it is partly about that, but actually, and more importantly, I think, I've learned that a more exciting aspect is about transformation.
Shoes and body parts
There is a clear theme throughout my developing mould making practice - shoes and body parts. All of these objects, I realise are actually about embodiment and disembodiment and presence and absence, two of the key themes in my current research. I researched the use of second hand clothing in my undergraduate dissertation, have used my actual shoes in a couple of installations, Don't wash your dirty laundry in public, 2016 and Parts of me, 2020 and have written about my shoes and embodiment here.
I have also reflected fully about why I'm interested in body parts and the meanings they bring to art, in terms of Freud's castration, the uncanny and Kristeva's abjection.
Why hands and feet? Because they give the illusion of the body, without an actual body. Why my hands and feet? Partly because I'm interested in self portraiture and the uncanny and partly because my own hands and feet are readily available to me. In fact, although my work appears to be all about me, I have concluded that actually I am using my own body to reflect on what it is to be human, and that I hope my work will resonate with anybody and everybody.
Concrete shoes
There's also a clear theme developing about unwearable or impossible shoes. I think this is partly about the limitations of the human body and how we are tethered to the earth by our bodies, specifically our feet. It also alludes to the idea of 'concrete boots' - a supposed method of murder or body disposal favoured by the Mafia or gangs. I find it funny too. Its such a pointless task, spending hours making a series of shoes that are utterly unwearable.... I think there's also a strong sense of embodiment/disembodiment, absence and presence. Concrete shoes become a transitional object, representing he body.
Process:
The processes of mould making and casting are slow, labour intensive and involve great care, concentration and my whole body. They involve concealing and revealing an object over and over again, burying it and then excavating it. It leads to Csiksentmihalyi's flow and that deep and different way of thinking. It's utterly physical. Neurologist Frank Wilson describes the complex links between the actions of the hand and the development of thought. He maintains that ‘the curious, exploratory, improvisational interaction of the hand with objects…gives rise to what we call “ideas”’ (1999, p8).Wilson suggests that activates ideas. Learning these new processes has given me a much broader scope for ideas in my work.
Materiality:
I have also learnt about a range of different materials - different kinds of silicon, wax, plaster, concrete, alginate amongst others - and have discovered their different properties and meanings. I have also enjoyed being led by these materials as their distinctive properties respond to my actions in particular ways. It often seems like alchemy. Linked into this is a different kind of flow, disovering how the distinctive properties of each material have agency in the final outcome. As Ingold suggests, I have found that
‘the forms of things arise within fields of force and flows of material … by intervening in these force-fields and following the lines of flow … practitioners make things … bind their own pathways or lines of becoming into the texture of material flows … in an ongoing generative movement that is at once itinerant, improvisatory and rhythmic' (2009).
Extending this intuitive interplay between my body and knitting to a wider range of materials has, I feel, introduced a distinctive change to my practice. My visual language has become more subtle and idiosyncratic.
Click here for some reflections on 2.12.20 Working with concrete
I have written more about materiality and process here.
When I first started making moulds I thought casting was about making multiples of objects, and, of course, it is partly about that, but actually, and more importantly, I think, I've learned that a more exciting aspect is about transformation.
Shoes and body parts
There is a clear theme throughout my developing mould making practice - shoes and body parts. All of these objects, I realise are actually about embodiment and disembodiment and presence and absence, two of the key themes in my current research. I researched the use of second hand clothing in my undergraduate dissertation, have used my actual shoes in a couple of installations, Don't wash your dirty laundry in public, 2016 and Parts of me, 2020 and have written about my shoes and embodiment here.
I have also reflected fully about why I'm interested in body parts and the meanings they bring to art, in terms of Freud's castration, the uncanny and Kristeva's abjection.
Why hands and feet? Because they give the illusion of the body, without an actual body. Why my hands and feet? Partly because I'm interested in self portraiture and the uncanny and partly because my own hands and feet are readily available to me. In fact, although my work appears to be all about me, I have concluded that actually I am using my own body to reflect on what it is to be human, and that I hope my work will resonate with anybody and everybody.
Concrete shoes
There's also a clear theme developing about unwearable or impossible shoes. I think this is partly about the limitations of the human body and how we are tethered to the earth by our bodies, specifically our feet. It also alludes to the idea of 'concrete boots' - a supposed method of murder or body disposal favoured by the Mafia or gangs. I find it funny too. Its such a pointless task, spending hours making a series of shoes that are utterly unwearable.... I think there's also a strong sense of embodiment/disembodiment, absence and presence. Concrete shoes become a transitional object, representing he body.
Process:
The processes of mould making and casting are slow, labour intensive and involve great care, concentration and my whole body. They involve concealing and revealing an object over and over again, burying it and then excavating it. It leads to Csiksentmihalyi's flow and that deep and different way of thinking. It's utterly physical. Neurologist Frank Wilson describes the complex links between the actions of the hand and the development of thought. He maintains that ‘the curious, exploratory, improvisational interaction of the hand with objects…gives rise to what we call “ideas”’ (1999, p8).Wilson suggests that activates ideas. Learning these new processes has given me a much broader scope for ideas in my work.
Materiality:
I have also learnt about a range of different materials - different kinds of silicon, wax, plaster, concrete, alginate amongst others - and have discovered their different properties and meanings. I have also enjoyed being led by these materials as their distinctive properties respond to my actions in particular ways. It often seems like alchemy. Linked into this is a different kind of flow, disovering how the distinctive properties of each material have agency in the final outcome. As Ingold suggests, I have found that
‘the forms of things arise within fields of force and flows of material … by intervening in these force-fields and following the lines of flow … practitioners make things … bind their own pathways or lines of becoming into the texture of material flows … in an ongoing generative movement that is at once itinerant, improvisatory and rhythmic' (2009).
Extending this intuitive interplay between my body and knitting to a wider range of materials has, I feel, introduced a distinctive change to my practice. My visual language has become more subtle and idiosyncratic.
Click here for some reflections on 2.12.20 Working with concrete
I have written more about materiality and process here.