Open Works: Proposal

This project will revolve around the idea of human life and time. My (original) idea is to have a wax model of a simplified, human figure. The model will have a wick running through it and serve as a candle, which will be lit at the start of the presentation.

The origin of this idea started with the concept of having a physical piece that could start and end; something that would be possible to “miss”. Like you could leave the room, come back, and have missed my work of art. (this of course, relates to the idea of human life.) This concept brought me to the idea of having a piece that I would set on fire; it would burn up and it would be gone. Obviously this would be too dangerous to perform indoors. And, also, almost unforgiving to the audience. This wouldn’t give anyone a large time span to actually witness the event take place. These revelations pushed me towards the candle idea.

My intended portrayal of human life, is that it has a “beginning” and “end”, and its state is ever-changing throughout. This is reinforced by the candle idea, since: it is lit, begins to melt, and eventually finishes when the wick has burned to its end. If I do end up using wax, it would also have a quality of rebirth since the wax can be melted down and recast again to form another figure; the same or not.

I googled ‘human candle’ and actually found that this concept is far from unique (even though I came up with it independently). This has given me a drive to set my piece apart from others. I want to give mine some sort of quality that none other has.

The actual appearance of the figure is undecided as of now. When I first conceptualized the project, I pictured a short and stocky, cartoony character used as the figure. I pictured minimal detail: no face or hair. I think this idea was subconsciously stolen from KAWS. (see figures) I am still undecided on what style figure I want to make. (see figures) However, I believe I need to more fully form the message I want to convey and have that bring me to a conclusion.

Similarly, I am interested in making multiple figures from the same mold (if a mold is my route of making these) utilizing different materials. This is also another way for me to differentiate myself from other “human candles”.

 

I will probably stray from this original plan and will continue to flesh out my idea before I start the process of constructing it.