‘FACE’ Project
‘FACE’ cast in sand with red pigment. Weston-super-Mare beach.
Initially, my inspiration was to make a life sized sculpture of a human figure, cast in cob. Cob is a mixture of clay, straw, sand and earth - a resilient and strong mixture - and one that has formed the structure of many traditional houses.
Setting out on this project, I realised that the desire to build a whole figure was over ambtitious, and I began to build a clay face in relief. Once finished, I cast her in materials from particular places and experienced the erosion of her back into that place.
For the ‘FACE’ cast in cob, she was situated and cast in my garden in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and the surrounding marigolds were grown by me… helped hugely by Davina Wynne Jones who started off the plants.
The initial casts were made in sand, on Weston-super-Mare beach and the process of casting and disintegration was beautifully photographed by Nigel Noyes.
I then went on to cast her in snow.
I felt that I had acheived the outcome I was looking for. The pieces were cast in the materials from the earth of a specific place, either by the sea, in a wood or a garden and then, in time, disintegrated back into the earth.
An important part of the work was documenting the process through photography.
Photography copyright, Nigel Noyes.
