A) Identifying Information
Materials
Plaster
Mirror shards
Red String
Birch plywood
Wood screws
Red cotton sheet
Black crepe fabric
Dimesions
Length: 16 in
Width: 16 in
Height: 12 in
B) Images
C) Reflection
1. Write a short poem using any form (including free form) in which you evoke the nature/feelings/character/atmosphere/sensations of the memory you cultivated through the making of your project. Your response here should be creative and specific, with the only guideline being that you should not relate a narrative. Instead of laying out a narrative or timeline, allow the memory to unfold through phenomena, space, material, embodied experience. Use adjectives, verbs, and nouns from your memory chart and proposal to evoke a sense of embodied experience and a sense of place.
His grip tightens and tightens
my throat is closing
Shooting pains flood my chest
as fingernails dig deeper and deeper
Heart beating like a drum
his breathe tugging at my veins
Please, Stop
my screams turn to whispers
my whispers turn to short, uneven breaths
I sink further and further into the bed
Quick, jolting limbs become motionless
all I feel is helplessness
hopelessness
2. Part 1: Describe your process of making an alginate body mold and a plaster cast, and explain when and how in that process you altered the cast including how you decided on the gesture, orientation, and alteration process. Explain any material choices you added to the plaster.
To make my alginate mold, I used the whole 1 lb bag of alginate powder and mixed it with the same amount of water. The first batch I made cured very quickly so I had to throw the mix out and buy another bag of alginate. I added more water to the second batch so it would not dry as quickly. After two minutes of mixing, I laid down on a couple stools in the wet shop and had Jude finish mixing the alginate. After she was done mixing, she started putting the wet alginate all over my chest. After using the whole bucket of alginate, she started laying down strips of plaster cloth over the alginate mold to support it. We used the whole roll of plaster cloth and waited for about half an hour for it to solidify. After, I slowly removed the cast from my body and laid it on the table, putting clothing and sponges under it for support.
To alter the cast, I decided to lay down red string in each of the breast cups. First, I put a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the breast cups, and then I added the string. My next step was mixing the plaster and pouring it into the mold. I mixed small batches of plaster and slowly poured it into the cast, swirling it as I worked so every part of the mold was covered in plaster. The red string kept on moving but I left it because I wanted to see how it would turn out and I thought that it would still symbolize veins on the body. Then, I waited until my plaster was in putty form and scooped it onto the mold to make the cast thicker. It took five batches of plaster to cover the cast, and afterwards I left it on the shelf to cure overnight.
After removing the alginate mold, I started refining the cast with a surform shaver and ribbon tools. I made another alginate mold of my friend’s hand (with his rings) and poured plaster into it. I included the rings on his hand to make the cast represent a specific person and convey the personal relationship between the body attached to the hand and the one attached to the chest. After the hand cast fully cured, I mixed another small batch of plaster and used it as mortar to attach the hand to the chest. I positioned it from above the cast, gripping the left breast. To further alter the cast, I took a mirror I had, smashed it with a hammer, and embedded the shards into the breasts of the cast. I started by making small holes specific to each broken shard with the wet shop’s carving tools. Next, I made a small batch of plaster, waited until it was in putty form, used a thin tool to put plaster into one of the holes, and stuck the mirror shard inside. I repeated this process many times until my cast looked how I wanted it.
I chose the orientation of the cast to be laying down flat on its back because this was the exact position of my body was in during the memory and I thought it would display the alterations well. I chose to use mirror shards as my alteration to evoke the sharp pain I was feeling in my chest at the time. I was going to use glass shards earlier but chose mirror ones instead because during the memory, I was very self-reflective and introspective. I was looking into my past actions and blaming myself for what was happening to me. I placed red string in the plaster to illustrate that I felt as if the veins in my chest were being pulled outside of my body.
3. Part 2: What kind(s) of inhabitable space(s) in the real world inform the inhabitable space you made? Carefully and specifically describe the structure, materials, processes that you used to make your inhabitable space. Describe how these choices contribute to the quality, character, psychological state, sensations, and atmosphere you would like your inhabitable space to evoke from your memory.
I found inspiration for my inhabitable space in a bedroom, or just a bed. I built a bed-like frame as the main structure to surround my plaster cast. There are four plywood sticks that extend up and four more that create a square that sits on top. I draped a slightly transparent, black crepe fabric over the top, so you can only see the cast by looking through one of the sides. The cast sits in the middle of the “bed” on top of a ‘mattress’ made from of red sheet. There are red strings going through the strings attached in the plaster cast and wrapped around the plywood frame. To make my inhabitable space, I started with the plywood bed frame. I cut eight sticks from the plywood sheet on the straight-cut bandsaw that were all 16 inches long. I put four of them aside and started marking the other four sticks to make slot joints. I cut two slots in each piece and connected them together. I took the square I made and put the other four sticks vertical, perpendicular to the square. I used clamps to make the wood stay down and drilled the four sticks into each of the four corners with 1¼ inch screws.
I used an old red sheet I had at my dorm and crumpled it into a ball to make a bed for the cast to sit on. Then, I placed my cast into it to see how I wanted it to sit. I wrapped fairy lights around the top frame and hid the battery box under the red sheets. I began stringing the red string through the string embedded in the cast and looping it around the wooden frame.
Through my inhabitable space, I wanted to evoke the feeling of being in a tight space without having room to move. I aimed to create a cozy, intimate space that is not easy to look at because of the cast’’s violent imagery. When people look through the curtain into the space, they should feel uneasy and concerned about what event took place during the memory. It should bring up painful emotions about a private space being disrupted, and pain being inflicted on a fragile body.
4.Write about two specific ways your work for this project relates to the work of artists we studied for this project, which include artists from the videos, the readings, and class lecture (reference the project Space/Materiality: Culture, McNulty, FA19 sheet for names). Make sure you include each artist’s name (ask if you cannot remember), and make sure to explain the reference you are making beyond obvious formal features.
My work relates to Joseph Cornell’s work in the use of found objects. Cornell uses a lot of random found objects in his sculptures of boxes which is echoed in my use of the mirror and red string in my plaster alterations. He also utilizes unexpected juxtapositions which is seen in the use of jagged broken mirror pieces on top of smooth, soft-looking white plaster. I also find similarities between my work and Sarah Sze’s. Although this is much more applicable in her art installations, we both use found objects to create “chaos” that is witnessed in the artwork by the viewer. She uses many different types of objects in her work to create large inhabitable spaces, and I used only a few, but the strings flowing throughout the cast and space I created remind me of the numerous lines and shadows she makes in her work, especially in her piece Urban Gardener.
5. Part 1 and Part 2: Discuss the design elements of mass, texture, and volume and their relationship to each other in your project.
My body cast has a thick, smooth bottom and a frail top that has a cracked texture. The overall smooth texture contrasts with the two alterations made to the cast. The red string contrasts in color with the white plaster and in form. It sits embedded into the center of the cast, where the heart would be in the body. The sharp, glossy mirror shards located in both of the breasts also contrasts in texture and shape with the roundness and smoothness of the plaster cast. The upper right section of the cast contains more mass and volume due to the hand cast placed on top of the left breast. There are varying textures throughout the piece: the sharp, protruding mirror shards, the smooth white plaster, and the loose red string. The large contrast between them makes the piece more dynamic and interesting.
6. How does the design principle of repetition play a role in the organization of space or material in your project?
In my body cast, I used repetition through the numerous mirror shards placed in the breasts. There are about twenty pieces of a broken mirror embedded in the two breasts of the cast oriented in different places and at various angles. I organized them surrounding the breasts to express the pain I was feeling in the specific areas during the memory. In the inhabitable space, I used the red string to show repetition. There are many pieces of red string looped into the string in the cast and pulled around the bed frame that creates lines permeating the negative space in the space. It stems from the cast and is pulled upwards and outwards. The repetition of the strings makes the viewer feel like the body was anxious and in pain because its heart was being pulled/disrupted during the memory.
7. Explain how you tailored your inhabitable space to your cast, or how you customized a space specifically for your cast to inhabit (discuss ergonomics, contact points between structure and cast, the relationship between surfaces, the size of the space, and the proportion of negative space to your altered cast).
I created a wooden structure to sit over the cast to imitate the shape and colors of a bed frame. I used slot joint connections to show the fragility and vulnerability of the memory as well as four screws that connect the vertical plywood sticks to draw associations with a bed frame. I made the frame its particular size so it would sit right around the cast and create a tight, intimate space. I added fairy lights to make the ‘bed’ space feel more personalized. The space itself is comfortable and does not display the harmful emotions of the memory. By placing the cast on the red sheets inside the space, the piece gains contrasting themes through the small, happy space being intruded on. The red strings connect the cast to the plywood frame to illustrate how the body was in a familiar space while it was experiencing the negative emotions and experiences (fear, heart racing, short breaths, hopelessness, anxiety) during the memory. Through my project, I wanted to transfer my embodied experience to the viewer when they peer through the curtain and gaze at the shards of mirror cutting into the breasts and the red string tugging at the heart of the cast.
8. Discuss how and where in the classroom you presented your finished project, and why you chose to display your piece that way.
I placed the piece in the corner of the room on a table to show how the memory is often one that gets shoved away and hidden from people. The curtain hangs low so the viewer has to bend their body and peer into it to see what is inside. I created my space like this because the memory deals with difficult subject matter, so I wanted to make it a little hard to look at. The cast should be “hidden” in the corner by the structure because it is a vulnerable piece of artwork. The audience will have to go out of their way to look into it, it is not something that sits on the table and waits for you to ask about it.
9. Discuss other important aspects of your project not mentioned above, such as how you delineated interior/exterior space, how you designed a threshold, how energy flows into, through, and out of your piece, how senses besides sight are involved in experiencing your project, how you used light or color, or anything else you wish to discuss.
The threshold is created by a piece of black fabric draped over the inhabitable space, so it is clear where the boundaries of the piece lay. I wanted to make the outside look very ordinary and the interior to store all of the energy through the violent and fragile imagery the cast displays. There is a lot of energy stored in the center or heart of the chest because of all the red string that originates from being looped through the string embedded in the plaster and is pulled out. It creates a web of string that defines the negative space in the piece. The fairy lights wrapped around the plywood frame helps draw attention to the cast by creating lines through the light casting shadows of the mirror shards and pieces of red string. These shadows also create depth because they contrast with the whiteness of the plaster. The colors featured in my piece: red, black, and white were intentionally chosen to evoke themes of lust, intimacy, pain, betrayal, innocence, and heartbreak.
10. To you, what is the most important or exciting aspect of your project or your process for this project?
My favorite part of the process of making this piece was working with the plaster itself. I really enjoyed mixing and pouring the plaster into the chest and hand casts, as well as using the wet shop’s tools to sculpt the cured cast. My favorite aspect of the project is the alteration I made to the chest cast with the mirror shards. It transformed the whole piece by combining ‘beauty’ with pain. The fragility of the cast contrasts with the sharp shard and gives the piece an emotional, dramatic look.
