The Scar Project

 

Model Alexandra is the first contributor to the Scar Project.  This effort to document the various marks on human's bodies, is meant to be a two part exploration.  

The first part is both creative and technical.  It demands that we not only work to improve the techniques of mold making and casting, but it also asks that we think carefully about how we frame in sculpture a mark on the body.

The second part is an exploration of human bodies and the history that these bodies record through their marks.  Like a geographer who maps his world, we seek to map the bodies that are the worlds of our models.  I look forward to those undiscovered countries. 

This was one of our more successful casts to date.  It was an immersion cast, and Alexandra's arm came out of the mold with no alginate residue anywhere.  That meant that it was all in the mold.  We spent great care pouring Hydrocal into the mold.  Still loose and wet, but for a direct pour not such a liability.  Thankfully we worked out all the air bubbles, and the cast was complete.

I was astonished at the faithfulness of the casting and how well the scars on her arm were rendered.  But what was most beautiful was to hear Alex then talk of her scars.  The narrative was so moving, and I look forward to seeing the sculpture paired with a written record of the life engraved upon her body.

I am humbled by her candor thus far.