Saturday, May 2, 2009

Waxing and waning

I have been doing a visual arts research project for the past year, looking at story; community; memory and imagination. It compares participants’ responses, looking for similarities, differences and/or patterns. I'm interested in how objects, and our bodies are repositories for cultural and personal memory, and in how these "stories" are passed on inter-generationally in a non-verbal way. Anyway, it all started when I discovered some relatives from way back who were 18thC & 19thC female Cornish tin miners-Bal maidens, then went via a history of poppets, studies of holding environment and play theory , memes, women's work (and many other divergences) and I'm now sending out lots of these cast wax objects,




which I hand-make..........



at home,


to female friends, relatives and acquaintances.



I have about 25 of them out there at the moment, and many more to make. I have been absolutely blown away by the response I am getting from the participants in the project. It's been fantastic, and such a lot of fun to "deliver" the objects to people and await their return. People are so generous with their time it has really touched me. I was over the moon to find out that one of the participants was even blogging about her experiences and it has inspired me to do this blog. I would love to post a photo of all the returned objects, -they look great- but I shall have to contain myself and wait till they are all back.

1 comment:

  1. I am still working on mine and I have fallen in love with it. I almost don't want to work over the wax because the wax is so much a part of it! I like how you talk about poppets - I have been obsessed with poppets ever since I read and re-read and re-read the Crucible in high school. I wish I had photographed the progression of the making from start to finish just like Messyfish did, and just like I have done with my own projects, however I will take a photo of it now and go from there.

    I love your project and I can't wait to see other's interpretations too.

    Love, Marshmallow Beanie.

    xxx

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