Seeds

A sort of tribute to Victorian photography.

Wire faces, masks; toys and art; labels

Earlier

Later

It is quite hard work shaping his copper wire to form an armature, which will be the basis of a mask: the wire ends are sharp and can cut your fingers wickedly. I think these armatures need a bit more tweaking, especially around the moth.

It is also quite hard to work the wire in three dimensions to make a good face shape. I think perhaps using wire netting might have been an easier option.

I find with these craft pieces that often in their earlier stages they are more striking, weirder, and as they progress they become less suggestive and more like mere toys. I intend this mask to be quite realistic. I think the more realistic masks are, the creepier.

What is the difference between a toy and a work of art? I suppose a toy is necessarily restricted in intention, while that of an artwork is diffuse, though its purposes are first of all aesthetic.

I love the interactivity of masks; they cross and confuse the boundaries between toy and artwork, between serious and silly like nothing else I can think of.

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Regular visitors will see that there are now labels at the bottom of the page, making it much easier and fun to find things on this blog.

Where to?

I don't know what to do next. The roundels series was well recieved. I know I have to work in a completely different way for the next series of works. Beyond that, however, what exactly to do, or indeed, what precisely to make work about is uncertain to me.

I'd like it to be something connected to the plates of drawings found illustrating natural histories, however.

Here is another detail from the Rooundels Series. The entire set can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/28509471@N05/

I'm coming to an end of this series.

I could continue, but I think that would result in repetition, and the work becoming more and more decorative and mechanical, like wallpaper.

Witchy

I was put in mind of this story while taking these photos-

http://www.mysteriouspeople.com/Bella_in_the_wychelm.htm