Week 23

After last weeks frustration I was pleased to find myself back in my studio working around my own creative practice. However I have discovered that I have hit something of a wall, I have been unable to find suitable ways to expand upon my own ideas and concepts therefore I started my week focusing on researching relevant artists and topics to inspire and inform my work. Sadly this week was also the last of the research context lectures for the NUA BA fine art program, which up until realising this I always found a pain in the ass every Tuesday morning however recently I have been realising how interesting they actually are furthermore how much they encourage you to formulate your own research within the studio practice.
Later in the week I decided to continue the study of human and non-human hybrid organisms as a symbol of the individuals desire to return to the natural world/Primal uncanny. However I wanted to explore this notion in a less sinister manor to which I have grown accustomed to, Still working around the notion of lycanthropy as the personification of the human and non-human hybrid, I wanted to explore the theme that the hybrid is a human attempt to return to the primal uncanny. Therefore I want to create the impression that this is a human created organism therefore I wanted to create an infant lycanthrope within an artificial womb. Below is my sketchbook page referring to this concept.

I decided to start the sculpture by creating an artificial womb using lecture liquid latex. I experimented first by painting a sheet of latex on a tile to find how thick I could make the latex sheet whilst maintain the transparent quality so as to reveal the organism inside. Below are both sides of the latex sheet which is now roughly the thickness of a 50p coin, and is clearly still transparent.

To create the womb I decided to paint the latex onto an inflated balloon coated on talcum powder so as to allow the latex to hopefully release when burst. below I have documented the creation of the womb, unfortunately the balloon burst before I was finished and the plastic of the balloon and the latex wont release from one another. However due to this both are partially supporting one another, shrinking and stretching at the same time.

 Furthermore this week I partly collaborated to help my friend Paul create a video piece in which me and several other volunteers moved our arms over a green screen which would late be edited on top of one another. I have attached a few images of the experience below:

 This was quite helpful for myself as it introduced me to film work, thus I am now thinking about perhaps creating a video piece of my own work, perhaps a stop motion of the artificial infant being born from the latex womb, as this would add an interesting dynamic which I have not explored before. therefore I have also tried to create a stage on which to shoot this. To do this I used several sheets of mount board which I stained brown with smudged ink in a fury texture, covered in latex, to give the impression of an artificial fleshy cage in which the womb resides. However I found that this was a hasty decision therefore the finished product was fairly poor yet it was an interesting concept which I need to consider exploring further. below I have documented the process of creating the stage.