Through experimentation, group crits and tutorials, the ideas behind my work has changed and developed.
I started out with the idea of using the translucency of the paraffin wax and placing objects inside. I wanted to represent life experiences and how, metaphorically, they remain inside us either buried deep inside and not visible or close to the surface and clear to see.
I experimented with casting wax to make a face (this you can see in my experimentation and making process) but during the process the details of the face were lost up to the point of it being unrecognisable. I liked the idea however of having to be close and interact with the sculpture in order to see its characteristics. This idea is still a potential.
I decided to experiment further by layering wax with a paintbrush, discovering that the opacity became stronger, therefore allowing the detail to show. I liked the result of this.
During a tutorial, more thoughts were provoked with the objects used and the technicalities. It was discussed that I try adding colour to the wax and create more realistic parts of a body, inspired by the eyes I had previously made and how they appear separate from the face. We also talked about which objects I should use or represent within the wax.
There is an interest i have regarding objects and how they are temporary, but yet we assign meaning to them and become attached. I suppose I want to draw attention to materialism by preserving these objects in wax, we preserve them in our minds, but they are worn and battered in reality.
There is also a temporary aspect to our bodies. As a christian, I believe that the bodies we are in now are not the ones we will have forever, as we will one day have a new body in heaven. the bodies we have now will one day be empty remains, but we can still be alive without them. This is the same for anyone whether they have a faith or not, you know whether a body has life or not. So, I could portray how our physical bodies are temporary as well as the objects we hold dearly.
The objects i could portray are those which people would not want to let go of. For me, this would be the bear ive had since I was born, I used to have nightmares about losing her when i was younger (writing this, ive realised how strange it is that i have assigned an inanimate object a gender and a name, as though it has a human presence, or even a spiritual one).
After making the wax hand, finger and the skin textures, peoples reactions to them interested me, some people were intrigued at the accuracy, most were grossed out and were scared to touch them. I don’t think the reaction would be the same in the hand were attached to the rest of the body- this would be natural, not detached. The detached nature is something I am interested in.
Someone in the group crit suggested that i should take the “mad scientist” approach and combine these skin texture with objects to give these objects a human essence, however, I think this would gross people out rather than make them think about the value we assign to objects.
It was also brought forward that I could display the hand next to an object in a way where it is interacting and presented so the hand also appears as an object.
here are my options:
- place objects inside a wax person without colour to represent life experiences and their effect on us.
- create a person hyper-realistically to create empathy between the viewer and the sculpture.
- keep the body parts separate to display the temporariness of our physical bodies.
- display these body parts alongside sentimental objects.
- merge the realistic skin with these sentimental objects.
How to progress:
- experiment with clear wax and achieving the right transparency to place objects inside of.
- collect images of objects of meaning to people. approach people of different life experiences.
- create replicas of these sentimental objects, play with size etc.
Artist research:
Tom Deininger – uses objects to create portraiture
Will Kurtz– makes figures out of newspaper “The newspaper forms have a collage of words and colorful advertising that is applied in a spontaneous painterly fashion to reflect the mood and life of the individual.”
Jetske Visser -forgotten memory, makes vessels out of wax. they are made to not be able to be used, they no longer serve a function, she explains her concept of altsimers in this video from 6:12 onwards.
Urs Fischer- untitled 2011 
unsure on context, appears to represent someone melting away, temporariness. we are made from temporary material.
Louis Fortier – casts the face, removes them from moulds before they are set, creating a warped yet interesting shape to the face. repetition articulates chance and unpredictability.
this particular image appears as though the faces are underwater.
Yuichi Ikehata“We live from moment to moment in a mix of truth and fiction that we consider to be reality. The distinction between reality and fiction is a relationship such that we require one in order to recognize the other, and at times they are so closely connected that we are unable to distinguish the two”
links with temporary idea.
Khalil Chishtee – sculpts using plastic bags- representing that what youre made of is what you’re worth.
objects of little sentiment or worth.
Xooang Choi– This piece especially relates to my work, it has almost a graceful and beautiful element, where hands separate from their bodies are never usually viewed in such ways. Interesting use of repetition and using loads of one thing to make an other thing.
Isaac Cordal– if i decided to take up the theme from last term again, this artist would relate.
Further ideas:
Instead of using objcets, I could use words.
lay the words under layers of skin like tattoos. use tissue or paper to layer words.
experiment with tissue and wax, hopefully tissue will turn transparent.
Rebecca Bowman's Sketchbook 