This summer I have started work experience with the Artist Sophie Mahon. Mahon specialises in sculpture and digital based art. Many of her pieces have an element of interaction or work with the public. For this project, Sophie is creating a 40ft bronze cast sculpture, which will be installed into Partington, a small town near Manchester. It is made up of 600 hands, taken from participants in the area who range from 8 months to 101 years old.
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| Plaster cast hands |
Sophie has previously been making 6 plaster boards with the hands attached. Once the bronze is cast, they will be slotted together and fixed onto a wall, creating the large sculpture. Over the past month I have been assisting Sophie in making the moulds. We started off by making a silicone mould using a technique called skin casting. The silicone is used as it picks up fine details, such as wrinkles and finger nails on the hands.
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| Silicone Moulds-Variations in colours and consistency |
We then moved onto creating a fibreglass jacket, which is used to hold the shapes of the hands. It is made from sheets of fibreglass that are stuck down with resin- almost like a paper mache technique. We had to work at quite a rapid pace before the resin began to cure. Once dry, it is incredibly solid and will create great support for casting the bronze. It has been a lengthy time period to complete and we are still in the process of patching up gaps and weaker areas. Once finished, both the silicone and fibreglass moulds will be removed and ready for the bronze casting.
(Time lapse of fiberglass to be uploaded)
So far, I have really enjoyed working with Sophie. It has been fascinating to experience the life of a freelancer and the journey through a commissioned project. I’d like to continue to gain skills from both her sculptural and technical background and apply them into my third year practice, specifically learning how to projection map. Sophie is a contact I’d like to work with in future projects or further work experience. It has been a learning curve working on such a large scale, as a lot of the processes became more difficult and longer to complete. However, 600 hands creates a bigger impact over 60. It has also made me more aware of how much i need to consider my time management . The project originally was suppose to be 8 months long, which has been extended into a year. How far will I push myself in terms of scale and time?
