Amalgamate

Bone Constructions and Foraging 

Arial view of Northfield Quarry (from GoogleMaps)

Above is the site which I have been getting all my inspiration from. As you can see its a trove of different 'zones' and hidden paths which as lead me to create other-worldly artworks. Over the Easter holidays I went to this place and crawled through the thick woodland to find bones and other pieces which I could translate into ideas.

"Some with beaks and jaws open, some shut, the teeth exposed like drawn claws."- (pg57) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Bone Construction with gypsum crystals (Weaservidae)

All the bones that I found are pretty much unchanged since the foraging (except from a wash which took off the mud and moss). I didn't want to bleach them because it could make them look fake and sterile, like a specimen that could be found in a doctors office. 

Bone Construction with gypsum crystals (Triodactle)

I constructed them through patience and endurance; one skeleton alone takes me 2 weeks to complete because superglue takes longer to set strongly in comparison to Bostik all purpose. In some cases I had to make a wire frame which sits inside the bone because the stress on that particular section was too great. I didn't want to make an external frame because it would destroy the illusion that these animals are standing through their own soul.
  I had no idea how to show them in the exhibition because of their size. Different things came into my mind and a reason why I should and shouldn't do it:

-A shelf ~ I want the viewers to look 360' around my work (because it took so long to make) and they have more than one good side.
-A plinth ~ This was my main suggestion because its a natural gallery standing object. I decided against this because when I was trying to find one a week before the exhibition, none were available (which were the right size).

Bone construction with gypsum crystals (Carnetacines)

- Three old wooden boxes (removed from Northfield quarry) ~ I was originally going to show them ontop of these boxes, but after a tutorial with Kit Craig I decided that this wouldn't be the best idea.
- A table ~ I was put off by this because it would look like a table, a halfhearted attempt of a plinth, but I found a round sheet of wood to make the table look more interesting. This became the base for my work which I think will look quite nice in the gallery space.

Graphite drawing of bone construction
(on old V.A.T documents)

  I thought it would look 'boring' if I just had them on a table, it would take them out of context. I decided to put them on a base of gypsum crystals; a mineral naturally occurring in Northfield quarry. You can get it in different purities (different colours) ranging from clear/purest to pink, grey and yellow. An interesting other-worldly substance which a lot of people haven't seen in its original form because it is usually made into plaster boards.

Graphite drawing of bone construction
(on old V.A.T documents)

   While cleaning the bones in front of the fire in the brick office, i started to draw from the bones that I had laid-out on the table. I found some large paper from Northfield Quarry which happen'd to be VAT papers from 1988, this gives me a geometric ground which to work on and previously existing pencil numbers from when that page was in use. I wanted to use everything I could from this place to transport the viewers to this place which had been lost in time.
  I made most of the drawings from a graphite stick to work with the existing pencil, but I wanted to try something bolder and contrasting; so I used marker pen. It worked fabulously and in conjunction with a blind drawing technique it made the drawing look fierce and wild, so much energy bouncing through these hollow bones.

Graphite drawing of bone construction
(on old V.A.T documents)

Dream Interpretation

Machine: A machine may well represent the machinations of life, which would be interpreted as "the life process". In Chinese medicine spiritual energy flows in a certain way around the body and the life process aids in that flow.

- In dreams, machines represent the brain and the logical thinking process, so psychologically it is the actual process of thinking that is important in this context rather than what we are thinking about. When a machine of any-sort (particually one that operates automatically like a robot) appears in a dream, it is often highlighting the body's automatic functions. These are the ordinary everyday actions that take place, such as breathing, heartbeat, elimination- those mechanical drives towards life that help us survive. "The Mechanics" of the body are an important part of our well-being and often when we percive a machine breaking-down in dreams, it warns us that we need to take care, that perhaps we are over-stressing a particular part of our body, such as the lungs or intestines.