11 Mar Casting the uncanny
Mold, replica, plaster, shape, embodiment, copy, cast. Hand as tool, hand as drawing implement. Death masks and life casts.
I recall with fascination the Ex Voto shrines in this Cathedral in Brazil. Body parts hung in gratitude for receiving a intercession, or added as an intervention to pray for a miracle.
Body part models in the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, Brazil
© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro
Basílica de Aparecida
Inside the cast of my left hand opens up as an interesting space. Reaching out into new directions. I am planning to pour this cast with something…..material undecided. Wax or crayon? Then I can use it as a drawing tool? I have plans to continue casting.
That feeling of being inside the cast, it is holding me together, containing me. That strange feeling of the weight of your own limbs encased in plaster. Uncanny. Once a traditional shell for healing broken limbs it has been replaced now with more lightweight material like fibreglass for fixing fractures.
I included 5 rolls of POP bandage in the material kits for my group sculpture project with the youth group in Deehub. Together, over zoom we will (attempt) to body cast hands and faces, partial or full I am interested in how we share the experience together in April. The temperature of the material, how it catalyzes and dries using our body heat. What language will be used to describe the shared event? Our Ex Voto collection of body casts.
References
Janine Antoni – Lick and Lather. Body casts in chocolate and soap. https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.206257.html