My verb that I've been working off is the verb to connect, so immediately I began to look at and brainstorm connective materials; tar, glue, chewing gum, drink stains (very sticky, especially coffee stains). I also thought about connective materials of the other kind such as wire, metal, and string.
This line of thought led to my first experiment, covering a cast of my hand in chewing gum:
As it turns out, there's not really any chance of this stuff coming off as I'd hoped so as this it shall stay!
I started to think about bodily connections, of all kinds; nerves, brain waves, et cetera. This led me also to think about not just connection, but dis-connections of the same kinds.
I'm actually quite happy with this piece, looking at connection of the body to itself and the outer world, shown through the way the wire holds the pieces of paper. We see the world through not just our eyes but also our minds, and this piece shows how going to great depths of mental and visual exploration of the world can result in confusion; disconnection; altered states of sensory awareness (of the world and the self).
Mmm m mm
This theme of connection and disconnection also resulted in this piece; a cast of my hand smashed and re-connected in an altered way.
My project has now taken a decidedly creepier, stranger turn...
I decided to go down to our friends at the material store and asked them for any old moulds that they had no need of any longer. They gave me the front and back half of a doll, and a cow's tongue. I also found two other moulds (a wooden spoon and a brush) but these weren't that useful.
So after reproducing these objects, several times in the case of the baby, I went down the courtyard with my trusty rusty steel bar and smashed them to within an inch of their distinctly white and powdery lives.
The resulting pieces I then took up to the studio and began experimenting with various re-connections of all of them. I also included a new cast of my hand;
These are the resulting experiments in connection;
The last one's my favourite, probably closely followed by the weird spider-baby...
