New work

The Ned Kelly Mold

Wax Taken from Clone FX

Clone FX

Full head casted in silicone

Simon in my studio

Mel in my studio

Applying the plaster shell

Removing the silicone

Clone FX sticks to hair even with tons of release

Casting My buddy Frank in Plaster

Wax Taken from plaster shell

Wax of Belinda

Portrait wax of Belinda- Sculpting still to do

Taking a portrait life cast

Taking a four part plaster life cast of Belinda

Lead Cast

Cast lead mask

Cast of a wax mask taken from life. Lead was poured at the ANU sculpture department with the help of Mr. Nick

Existentialism and recognizing a visual identity

……..Thinking of an edition of glass pieces that deal with existentialist philosophies on identity. Specifically the constancy and authenticity of identity. I have been thinking about identity in a state of flux: “self-made” through freedom, choice, and experience. My work is dealing with those reoccurring/ embedded visual characteristics  within an edition of changing form, that  connects a sense of identity to that form.

Along with ideas of constancy of identity, I am thinking about those things that authenticate identity. What theoretically separates a fictional identity from an authentic one? Belongings, journal entries. friendships, photographs……? When working on a self portrait for example, how far removed does a likeness or resemblance become. Where do the boundaries lie between a personal and generic/universal portrait of being and presence? And if the boundaries of an authentic identity becomes blurred within a personal, universal or even fictional sense of being, then how true are memories or a private sense of reality? …………. These ideas are being worked out visually through the transparency of glass and the form of the figure

Considerations on the medium of glass with relation to the figure

Amongst many modern uses, glass is used as an architectural element, a higher quality packaging, and a surface we can see through that reflects light. I think of the glossy transparent quality and jagged, broken aspect that glass can have. Glass can come across very heavy and monumental in appearance or light and fragile. When dealing with the figure in glass I think about the question that proceeds the making process: What am I trying to achieve with the  glass figure, a glass portrait? Is it an existential standpoint on individuality? Is it to depict the layers of self, the construction of identity through the characteristics which glass can offer? When I think of developing a figure, a torso out of glass, I’m thinking about the inside/ invisible aspect of a person and the outside/ visible aspect that one creates and adorns for external display. Glass is the middle ground, the window to look through. Glass as a surface that reflects light and a reference to the body as a fragile, somewhat transparent architectural container. I contemplate the tension between the surface, the edges, the weight, etc.  I consider  what is behind or in front of the glass? How does the weight of the glass look visually? If the glass is cut what does that imply? There are many associations and flags the figure in glass can project. ………These are some thoughts regarding the onset of my process for the next 6 months.