Concrete and Experimentation

For the past few days I've been continuing to make work out of wax, and thinking about the different possibilities for this project. On Friday I went to Butley, and was happy to see that the big sculpture that I poured on Thursday had been successful and didn't spill over. The dip that had occurred within the piece was really interesting, bringing to mind lots of ideas surrounding tunnels of sound and what the hole could mean for the work, aside from the idea of moving backwards into myself as a person.

The thinner piece had worked well too, and I was excited that the cardboard had worked for both pieces. In some parts the cardboard had made an indent into the wax, but that was only because I had been fairly careless with the board being bent, as these are still experiments. When I come to making a piece of work that I want to keep I'll make sure that the board doesn't have any rips, etc. So from now on I'm going to use the thick cardboard, rather than the thin type.

After checking on the wax, I went on to make four more plaster heads. As I have done this a few times now, I know exactly how to do it. Unfortunately I ran out of cement part way through the process, so two of the heads are a different colour than the rest. I was able to make the mixture without having any excess water rising to the top, which meant that I had mixed up the cement, sand and water successfully.

In the afternoon I was able to do my own work, so I continued to work with wax, pouring two more wax pieces, looking at how thin or fat I could make each mould. I also tried poking a hole in the bottom of the mould after I had poured the wax in, attempting to create a bigger manufactured dip in the work. When I left, the moulds were still drying, so I don't know whether I was very successful or not. This is something that I want to experiment more with. I also made a concrete sculpture with some leftover material from making the heads, hopefully this has worked well too.

As well as this I started to make my work space at Butley more interesting to be in, this involved me putting up a few of my wax sculptures, as well as getting a smoother table top.

After working for a little over a week on this project, I feel that there are lots of aspects within the sculptures that I want to experiment with. This includes experimenting with angling the moulds when I pour the wax, so the wax will dry at an angle, rather than straight, this would also offset the dip inside the mould. Another idea would be to experiment with the location of the dip, I would begin to look into this by poking holes in the mould whilst the wax is still hot, in different locations to see if it had any effect. I also want to experiment more with colour, as well as thinking about what the different colours mean. As well as this I want to see if the sculpture would be interesting if it were to be hollow, making the dip a hole into the inside of the piece, where you could talk into it and your voice would bounce around the inside. Lastly I would like to make a 2 part mould using one of the wax sculptures, so I can make duplicates of the work in plaster form as well as bronze at some point, when I learn the skills to do it. I will begin to play around with all these ideas in the next few days/weeks.

On Tuesday my foundation exhibition begins, which will run from Tuesday morning until Friday afternoon (10:00am - 4:00pm). The private view is happening from half 5 until half 7 on Tuesday. I'm looking forward for my work to be seen by the public, and hope that people will understand what it's all about, feel confident enough to touch the sculptures and read my books. This is the exhibition poster:

Over the weekend I also played a unique sound orientated game called Sound Shapes. As you move through the different levels everything that you touch adds a new note to the music happening in the background. So as you journey through an area you slowly add to the soundtrack, constantly building it up until you reach the end. It was a really peaceful and calming experience.

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