I produced the first of what will potentially be between four and ten 1'2" x 7'6" plaster tableaus, each featuring imagery implying a certain addiction. This was Alcoholism, and despite sustaining a fair few cuts and burns from handling broken glass and spot-welding reinforcement frames, I was very happy with the result I achieved.
The sand I've been using was given to me for free by the college estates team, and is standard, basic builder's sand - it has trace amounts of clay in it, making it very good for retaining details of imprints and an excellent mouldmaking material. Thankfully I've managed to save some money from using it too, meaning my budget has more room for plaster.
The project has taken a turn towards a more definitive theme of 'addiction' - I have named it 'No Other Gods Before Me' after the first of the Ten Commandments ('I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before Me'), thereby implying that often addiction takes the place of religion in modern life.
I have looked at the Ten Commandments in detail, as well as the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Because of the timescale of the project, and taking into account the fact I have had to wait for my plaster to be delivered, I would be happy to have a minimum of 4 slabs completed, and a maximum of 10.
So far I have produced two - Alcoholism and Sex Addiction - and hope to produce Anorexia by the end of this week, if not Anorexia and Self-Injury to dry over the weekend. Sex Addiction did not feature sand-casting except in objects which were embedded into it, and so has had a faster turnaround, and Anorexia will need more time to dry as it features sand-casting heavily.
The list of addictions I will cover is as follows:
- Alcohol
- Cigarettes
- Drugs (recreational and medical together)
- Sex
- Anorexia
- Bulimia
- Self-injury/self-harm
- Exercise
- Technology
- Binge eating
Each one fits into a Deadly Sin, and each one breaks a Commandment. In terms of the Four Horsemen, I have decided to give priority to Alcohol (War), Sex (Pestilence), Anorexia (Famine) and Self-Injury (Death).
At the same time I have been producing a video to accompany the slabs - it would hopefully be projected across the slabs, playing on their texture and the found objects incorporated in them - which is being filmed on Panasonic tapes, and rendered in black-and-white. I wanted the video piece to be a departure from my usual style, and have a more polished look to it. I will stay away from using too many video effects and instead focus on the tone and composition of the video, aiming for smooth transitions and interplay within footage.
For this reason I am filming footage for each addiction on separate tapes, so that I can edit them each in turn and keep track of them. Each addiction will be a small video vignette in its own right, and I will then combine the 10 of them into a longer video reel.
I feel confident I can produce at least 7 slabs - 4 is going to be very easy, but 10 will mean I really have to push myself. I will be producing a video blog later today to accompany this progress report. Pictures to come.
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