Manscaping: Project 02 results

Installation of project 02. Let's see how the crit goes tomorrow :)

More progress

Made some good progress on the wax mold of my torso this week. It's disturbingly fleshy-looking!
The next phase of the project involves me taking photos of the torso as the timeline of a landscape and it's population unfold over time. I'm thinking of using a reference to heat mapping and my hometown of Winnipeg as inspiration.

Process shots

This is my set up. Note the cute lil' hot plate for melting wax.

Ran out of wax so I cannibalized my first project :O

Looking down into the cast. Looks like organs! :D

Making a torso plaster cast pics

First try with Alginate and plaster: a messy mess of a mess

Second try with plaster strips and warm water (!) success!
(this is pre-accidental chest wax = ouchies)

Waxing poetic (did I use this one already?)

Just an experiment using candle wax as casting material. The mold is made with alginate and my fist of fury, but what I like most about it, is the alginate picks out all the lines and crevasses. For my project, I was considering doing a full body cast in wax, but this might prove too ambitious. I'll start with the face and see how it goes from there ;)

Project 2: Surrealism

For our second project, we are to make a piece (no rules pertaining to materials or process) that deals with surrealism in contemporary sculpture. I want to do something figurative. We touched on the topic of the feminine body and beauty. I thought about how that pertains to the masculine body . . . but what about the "ugly"? A few ideas have come to mind about casting a face in wax and giving it gold thread facial hair. Or bejewelled warts. I also thought about capturing "ugly" emotions like anger and apathy. What I'm leaning towards is making a full body cast using red candle wax and having the form wrapped in a gold or metallic ribbon that ends in its mouth: becoming vulnerable through speaking truthfully (which I think is the most beautiful thing!)
Here's some inspiration:

Louise Bourgeois

Mark Quinn

Antony Gormly

Ron Mueck