eight
Sofia, Maya and Flora
Final video:
Final photo series:
First idea:
For this project, we were asked to work with ephemeral materials. Our first idea was to work with soap, we were going to make a planter to then add soil and make a plant grow. Our process was going to involve molding the soap into various shapes in order to make a functioning hollow planter vase.
Notes/sketches:
Description of the project:
Due to time constraints, we weren’t going to be able to make a plant grow, so what we thought of instead was to revolve the project on the ephemerality of the material that we were going to use, which was still soap. As we all know, a piece of soap becomes thinner and thinner each time in contact with water. What we did was to create shapes with the soap with eight silicone molds that we bought, which have the shape of eight distinctive faces. In each mold, we placed a dried flower, all except in one, in which we placed a thorn. Our aim was to thin the soap until the flowers and thorn come out, washing the faces and shapes by washing our hands. To document the process we used a time-lapse video and pictures after every wash.
Message:
The idea behind these soaps was to demonstrate a facade of different faces. During the process of us using the soaps, the faces are being washed away and we are left with what is inside the soaps. Just as with people we can never know beforehand what a person has to offer or what the inside of someone is. We wanted to represent the true beauty that is hidden behind the facade of someone’s face. The soap has a facade of these illustrated faces and has their real inside underneath. To bring another dimension to our soaps we felt obligated to make these hidden treasures a bit more complex by adding not only beauty represented by flowers, but the opposite represented with one single thorn. This game-like “treasure hunt” of seeing what is left from the soaps show the meaning behind inside beauty, we never know what we might find underneath the facade.
The outcome of these soaps turned out very creepy looking, mostly because the mold is different faces. It felt more meaningful to use face molds as it makes them more humanized and adds on to the idea of the faces being a personality with the inside of the flowers. Soaps and faces, both something that we usually see as very beautiful is in this case more related to scary “dead-looking” faces that are dying as we wash them. The idea of us washing away the faces leaving us with flowers are also related to funerals, which gives a sense of death.
Part 1: Soap making
We decided to meet as a group to collectively to melt the soap and put it into the molds we bought. The meetup spot was at Maya’s house and each group member was committed to rearranging their schedules to meet up, so there was no issue with overlapping time schedules. Each individual was in charge of getting a certain ingredient for our experiment; Maya got the lavender soap bars, Sofia got the molds, and Flora got the miniature flowers (and a thorn).
We began by using a grater to grate the soap into smaller pieces, as it would be easier to melt. We had the first trial to test before wasting any useful materials, as it was all our first time doing this kind of process. After grating a soap bar in a bowl, we added about 75ml of water-half the amount of soap (an estimation). After, we mixed the water and soap thoroughly with a spoon, and heated it up in the microwave for about 1 minute to melt it. However, following these stages, we realised that the result was not as expected. The soap became very ‘foamy’ and formed a lot of bubbles.
We attempted a second trial, following a different method. We grated another soap bar into a bowl (less amount than the first), and added around 20mL of water. Instead of heating it in the microwave, we thought it would be more effective to put it in a pot on the stove, heating it up to 7. We mixed the water and soap in the pot for about 5-7 minutes, and added the mixture into a bowl with a net to separate the chunks of soap and the liquid.
After finally successfully getting the result we wanted from the experiment, we poured the liquid and inserted the small flowers and the thorn into each mold. Then, we put all the molds in the fridge for 3 days until they were solid.
Part 2: Documentation and final outcome
Once we had the soaps ready in class it was time to document our “performing” (using the soaps), which happened in class. We installed a camera on a tripod in front of the soaps lined up and documented step by step how they eventually would “disappear”. Each soap had its place in the line and remained on the same spot through the documentation. To capture the process of a soap shrinking we wanted to take pictures between each wash. A wash consisted of Maya washing her hands with the soap and then put it back on the line. It took us approximately eight washes for the soap to vanish. In the end, we were left with only the inside, the flowers, and one thorn.
We have the documentation of the lined up soaps, photographs from the soaps before we used them and a short video of the timelapse of us using the soaps.