A View to the Underworld

Separate Molds

Failed Molds

I used a putty mold to create 12 replicas of keys out of clear plastic.  I made the keys translucent because I wanted them to be representations of keys, not the actual functioning key.  Hanging from the white branches, I wanted the keys to seem insubstantial, yet present, a representation.  To incorporate text, I wrote on the keys with sharpie, things that were important to me, or things I wanted to see.  Keys to….”the moon”, “happiness”, etc….

This quote that I found underlines how the process of creation takes precedence over the result itself. I was going to paint the hands initially, but I wanted the focal point to be on the pumpkin (the lack of paint also makes it easier to see the details of the hand).

I chose the calloused hands of my father primarily to symbolize how process is something that takes time and much effort – the weathered look of the skin is indicative of the passage of time, as well as the hard labor required to ‘produce great pumpkins’.

The hands were molded using RTV rubber (a type of putty). The pumpkin was molded using silicone.

I made three different types of molds: the key mold was made with the blue silicone, the pen was made with the two part pink silicone, and the quarter was made of putty.

I sprayed the key with release, but it would not come out of the mold, and when I forcefully pulled it out, it ruined the mold.  The  pen mold was successful, but my first try with the resin leaked, I should have made a mothermold to hold it together better.  The quarter putty mold worked, and for the project due on Wednesday,  I probably will use the putty mold with resin to create my keys.

I apologize for misinterpreting the assignment – initially I thought that we were expected to make three small positives using three different techniques.

Acorn: Blue casting material

Panda: Silicone

Battery: Putty

Although seemingly ‘cute’ or ‘kitch’ at a first glance, this piece was geared towards a more morbid concept: death as an alternative meaning for the word, “sleep”. More specifically, it explores the role of food as a method of processing death for the sake of human indulgences. But what I found most interesting about food–such as the Japanese sushi dishes–was how a medley of dead animals can be neatly arranged in an almost ‘natural’ fashion on a plate – regardless of whether they were actually from the same hemisphere, or the same cubic kilometer of ocean. This unification of the different species in their final stage of rest is what makes them ‘strange bedfellows’ indeed.