PROCESS | create

GLASS WAX EXPERIMENTATION

I had heard about glass wax around university, but hardly ever came across any outcomes from students. Turns out that the technical team didn't know much about the material themselves so I made it my goal in the beggining of semester to get to know more about this mysterious material... When purchasing a large amount of glass wax online, I rang up the suppliers to ask them about the properties of it as there was no information online either. It is a wax mixed with a plastic that impersonates glass, which has an extremelly hot melting temperature of 115 degrees. So to begin I put the wax on full wack and created a glass wax head from a plaster cast, to then realise that I had heated up the material too quickly, which discolours it - as seen left below.

I quickly started to understand why this material was so neglected - it is so complicated to work with and expensive! It is also extremelly fragile and of course I ended up shattering the first discoloured attempt to create a glass wax head.

These images are of the original casting process; polystyrene head in a new method of plaster casting called the contour mould. After mixing the plaster and letting it almost set, I pasted it onto the object and repeated that until it was a thick enough cast that wouldn't break. By creating a clay barrier with a lip, it allowed me to create a substantial lock for the two part cast to attatch together when split apart. When splitting the two casts apart I had a lot of trouble getting the head out which resulted in me having to cut little bits out at a time to release.

The image below is the first attempt to pour glass wax into the mould. Of course the glass wax was a pain and set immediatley when it hit the cold wet plaster, so the next time around i soaked the plaster in very hot water so the wax had a bit more time to coat each bit of the plaster. It was dangerous to try and coat the whole cast in one as I could of tipped it a wrong way and it could have poured straight out over me, therefore I had to keep melting glass wax over and over to do it bit by bit. The work became tedious and it took me almost a month religously in fabrication to create the final piece.

To the left is some process images, as you can see the cast was very patchy as it was almost impossible to control where it set inside the mould. Therefore when I took the final mould out of its cast, I had to spend a lot of time welding pieces of wax to fill the gaps in the cast - you can see the discoloured parts where the wax was heated very fast and transformed.

After that, I melted more wax and dribbled it over and over the cast to create a very fragile, delicate effect. The final piece was presented with a light inside as the cast was hollow.

More glass wax experimentation - the teeth. By using alignate and mouldable shields, I created a mould of teeth by letting the alignate set inside the mouth. Then poured glass wax into them. Orginally I was going to use these as part of the glass wax head, but failed to realise how complicated and deliacte the material wax so it would have been way to complex. The teeth on their own were an interesting outcome.
Also, I tried colouring the glass wax and pouring it into water to notice movement in water. The outcomes look almost like intestines and could have assisted in creating gruesome body parts, but unfrtunatley when adding the wax into water it becomes even more delicate and these pieces were destroyed allmost immediatley after photographing. The textures and shapes are so interesting on their own, the flow of water.

I loved the outcomes so much, but knew tht they were not sustainable. I decided to experiment with making a wire sculpture than would fit in a bucket of water, so the wax would have something to attach itself to. Also the materials create a uncomfortable juxtapostion when thinking of the wax as body parts with hard metal engraved into it.

I bought a few different types of wire and created a structure with tools. Then melted glass wax, mixing it with oil clours to colour, submerged the structure in water and as i tipped the glass wax i picked up the structure so the wax did not just set on top of the water. The following images are that process. The green and clear wax was the second stage as it took many layers to create all the colours. The wax was a lot more sustainable after this process, but not enough that every time somebody touched it, bits broke off. So photographing it professionally in a studio setting was my next experiment.

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The images came out really well; I experimented with studio lighting to cast shadows behind the scupture which created a dark dramatic effect. The imaages juxtpose somthing evil and daunting with something so beautiful that glistens. Documenting the piece from different angles created different shapes also, because it was not symmetrical. I plan to create something life size.

Video experimentation - Playing with different effects to create a trance like effect.

EXPERIMENTING WITH SCULPTURE SHADOWS BY ALTERING THE LIGHT POSITION. UNFORTUNATLEY THE QUALITY WAS POOR, BUT IT STILL CREATES A HYPNOTISING EFFECT WHEN UNITED WITH THE SOFT MUSIC.

I assembled this big wire sclupture to attach the previous work to, the glass wax head, then melt. The glass wax head was a process of about a month and due to its delicacy, I had to carry it around to gently to different galleries and accomodation, which is why I wanted a way to let go of it. The sold structure would turn to chaos and instead of movement in water it would be a record of movement in air. Unfortunatley, I could not aquire the right tools to complete the task, although I did try with what I could find. As the melting temerature of wax is so high, it was impossible to melt the thick cast with a hairdryer, I needed a blow torch. Image to the right is the first attempt in this.

EXPERIMENTING WITH WAX TO CAST OCTOPUS TENTACLE, TURNED OUT 2D AS CASTED FLAT ON A SURFACE. GOING TO EXPERIMENT WITH OTHER WAXES SUCH AS GLASS WAX TO CREATE A MORE DELICATE SCULPTURE.

I CREATED MY OWN TECHNIQUE BY SMOTHERING A PAGE WITH MELTED WAX, THEN DROPPING COLD WATER ONTO IT INSTANTLY SO THE WAX SET IN THE SHAPE OF THE WATER.

Me, Fran, Alex, Harrie and Dan went down to the forest to work on a collaborative project. It involved a lot of different types of plastic and attaching it to nature to document. We wanted to study how the industrial interacted with the natural environment. This was an important event that grounded my study as it really got me thinking about plastic and pollution, especially in the oceans where several whales were washed up dead and their stomaches were full of plastic.

OUR DESTINY, A PLASTIC TREE.

Due to climate change, pollution, oil spills and other man made disasters, it has caused many animals to die - especially in our oceans. I wanted to create a series of video works that showed an octopus, an extremelly smart and sentient creature, being disgustingly chopped up into little bits. The reaction was intended to be disgusted from the audience. I wanted to expose that this very thing is happening every day by man, and if people cannot stand to watch then contributing to these man made disasters is not a right of theirs. If you cannot stand to see the dead octopus then why are people contributing to the death of them... industrial waste, sewage waste, marine dumping, mining, fossil fuels, oil etc etc.
I decided to create these series of short films, about 10 5 minute videos, into a bigger piece that could explore all the elements I have been reserching into.

Setting up the installation: two big cube TV's, two sets of headphones, two tables. I decorated the space with huge green nets the resemble fishing nets. The space is delberatley difficult to get into and out of, squashing the audience into a small tiny room. This is an example of the life an octopus lives.. hiding in small spaces from predators and constantly in fear of the huge fishing nets that take their lives. The same goes for any sea creature. The two headphones are for the two different soundtracks.. One of passages read out from The Soul of an Octopus - a exploration into the conciousness of octopi. The other is a series of audio readings about Fukishima, Cowspiracy, lectures about the intelligence of octopods, songs etc. There are foam pillows undernath the green decor for two people to sit and experience the 10 minute long video, and when they come away from the installation, both viewers will have a completley unique experience of what they have heard and saw as they can switch between both screens. The reason for two screens is because the videos start off quite soft and interesting with clips of smart octopi and human interaction under the ocean. After the videos take a turn and reveal upsetting imagery of octopi being eaten alive, killed and eventually the videos I recorded previously of octopi being cut up. The viewer thinks they can escape the imagery with two screens as throughout their is always positive imagery on one screen - until the end where both screens become upsetting and the viewer feels trapped.

The extensive collection of files from this project. Although using others footage, it has still been a long process of editing, rediting and rediting!

Creating DVD covers.