So what am I trying to acheive on this residency? I applied to the RSA with the idea that I would use the ancient technique of mold-making using horse manure, sand and clay that was shown to me by Mark Haliday in his Penarth garden a couple of summer’s ago. I liked the idea that this material could be used in the same way as I have previously used plasterboard or injection-molded plastic components. It is an inbetween material that serves the function of holding a temporary negative form, ready for casting. Plasterboard and cheap plastic casings also serve a single function, as they are usually too weak to be reconstituted into anything else. Therefore I’ve had a need to celebrate the fragility of these materials, and use them as the basis for my sculpture.
Much like a traditional cast, the forms I want to create in the manure/sand/clay mix will be inverse shapes, created by stacking cardboard, another throwaway material, to create forms that are then burnt out from the mold. Rather than runners and risers, there will be openings, like small doorways, entrances and exits, passageways and air ducts. The forms, I hope, will represent a miniature environment akin to the carved cities of Kapadokya, Turkey. The viewer cannot physically enter the space, but it is hoped they would project themselves into it, inhabiting it in their imagination.
Now I have to begin to create the cardboard forms. Many thanks to the shopowners of Huntly for the boxes I’ve amassed so far!
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