Unit 3.2 — Caryatid Piece: Thinking through making, Many Maquettes, Creative Process log, Inspiration & Research
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Recent encounter with caryatids at the Erechtheion of the Acropolis, seeing the hair on the back of them, getting up close and noticing the backs are more well preserved than the fronts.
I recall a portrait I had done of my daughter, of the back of her head and her hair in a characteristic braid. I had this done because I was so conscious of knowing what the back of my kids head looked like. (Portrait by Stephanie Forrest)
Orienting a sculpture to create a feeling with ‘standing with’ and to look on from their perspective…
This painting comes to mind, Marlene Dumas, The Visitor…prostitutes in a Degas pose, anticipating what will come through the door. Waiting, witnessing.
I draw to get to know the caryatids and slowly make a small maquette in clay working out form and proportions, curious about working with marble, the difference between making by removing and making by adding.
Her back, her hair and how my handling of the maquette creates mirco-ruins, I am making a kind of ruin and that interests me, the front is very much left rough. How our admiration can create ruins of things…
On the repatriation front, I notice the caryatid in the British Museum, at least the photos of her since she’s not on view, do represent a more well preserved artifact — is this reason enough to possess her?
I think about what she would say if she had a voice. How she watched the Venetians blow up the Parthenon with not just gun powder stowed within but 300 women and children. The glossing over of this in all museum didactics.
She used to hold libations, objects that suggest welcome and ritual — they are absent, she is absent.
I am beginning to think I will focus on the caryatid in the British Museum…
I think about playing with the shapes and volumes of what goes on her head…how she props so much up, standing stilly. Witness, welcomer, stuck with a shared burden.
Demolition / diasporic / broken bodies / broken group /
More drawing and trying out a new material that doesn’t dry out, Chavant. It takes some getting used to…
The caryatids, contemporary readings on them & a conversation with my clever mate — seeing them embody women’s burdens, power, witness, influence, importance.
How her body lends itself to the architectural language, a forced anthropomorphising, forced support.
Psalm 144:
Then our sons in their youth
will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars
carved to adorn a palace.
An idealisation.
I give up adding in hair detail and the like, the Chavant is much slower to work with than clay, much more dense and hard.
Volume becomes clear — her hair and the stuff on her head are immense.
She is carrying a heavy load. I had read how the thickness of the hair lent more strength to her neck, a weak point.
Her posture is spot on.
I notice how stripping away the ornament and high relief changes our perception of the volumes of the overall composition.
Her burdens, weight, power, strength move from the background to the foreground of the overall impression.
She is supporting so much — yet her ‘prettiness’ and ornament around her distract us from this, and speak into other things like idealised versions.
I hear a male voice in my head, “You’re not doing any hard work…look how pretty you look.” or “Look how nice you look…look how we decorate and celebrate you.”
And I’m thinking about women’s labour,
the journey of the caryatid in the British Museum,
wilful blindness,
bodies of service,
ornament and what it hides and what it serves,
how unknowable the past is,
how biased (and human) institutions are yet I still love them,
the burden of being admired,
ideas around possession & collection,
how we can destroy what we love,
over-handle,
the silent witness of women,
the absent witnesses,
how much I would love to sit with an ancient girl who was at these temples — but why don’t I just do that more with people who are alive now,
how we project our meanings onto the past,
how Greece is idealised by the west while it was the Venetians who blew up the Parthenon,
how Elgin may have just not wanted the French to get the artifacts as both countries raced to prove their understanding/power over the past,
government creating culture narratives,
collections and museums and the idea that somehow when we look at things, it changes us,
the premise of the museum in Sarasota, The Ringling, for example, we will get this stuff, from Europe, we will look at it, we will possess it and we will be better off,
to look is to consume,
the labour of being looked at,
the lure of the unknowable and how all possibilities reside first in mystery.
Made a pretty awful looking maquette, began to feel very overworked and annoying and fussy and boring to make — very much not my process, I preferred the piece I did in the chavant in terms of both process and outcome.
Lesson learned, I was thinking of the background as a place for showing what the figure was looking out to and doing some kind of abstract glaze application…and still somewhat like that idea, but have decided to do something else.
I sliced it up, that was useful.
A few things I saw in the world that felt relevant…
Also relevant & looking at ~ an artist I love from one of my books, Nicole Cherubini
Selected Tutorial notes:
- work with the figure from the back, keep the making more like the chavant piece, perhaps something goes on top of the head (perhaps not)
- develop the side that faces the wall and figure out how to hang the piece from an (eye), do a different surface application on that ‘hidden’ side, I’m thinking more primordial and the rest is more shiny and marbled, I am also thinking about this piece that I previously made and very keen for this ‘flat back” (as per school brief) is a 3D sculptural object
- materiality of female body, woman as ‘material’
- Rich Miller’s connection with my daughter & wanting to use her as a model
- could research a bit on women carrying things on their heads
- Ian mentioned: Pablo Bronstein as reference and a mango stain for a super vivid colour
- Thomas mentioned looking handmade and the emotional experience that creates, the perspective from behid the head and body cams and porn and gaming culture ~ exploring the idea of historical ‘truth’ and the role of witnessing as women
Photos of surface research (mine & others) from sketch book:
More creation and destruction.
Fumbling through form. Was frustrating but then interesting to realise (I think) where I was going wrong. I guess it takes courage to destroy a whole bunch of stuff…the volumes felt weird, the scale wasnt matching the brief, then it would get good, and then fall flat again, I tried upside down…then did some more drawings.
I’m giving myself permission to make a piece inspired by, not volumetrically accurate! Also to experiement with adding surface qualities and focusing on the caryatid thats in the British Museum, use my daughter as a model and fire my first maquette.
Finalising the model…took a while…
It took quite a while to arrive at this final model — the balance between capturing the volumes and recognisable-ness of a caryatid without torturing myself into too much perfect copying, what visual information to keep, what was less important — there are a lot of choices along the way and as the piece develops it goes through some awkward phases. There was definitely some frustration. Here’s a bit of the final stages of that messy process:
Some form/volume research with my daughter:
And the final model:
Next step is the plaster mould….blog on that process HERE
Meanwhile I am noticing something about my process:
I cast a wide net, that is fun and interesting to me — to explore, make links and keep going, keep learning — however, I also get to a point where I may have decided to go in all sorts of directions (generally on a practical/making level) and I need to abandon many of those choices as the making progresses. If I don’t the making feels forced and yucky. Editing like a mother fucker on fire keeps it all moving in the best direction, but it takes guts and trust in myself to edit like a fire-y mo’fo’…to arrive at something simplified with no extra virtuosity (barf) is a tricky process. Holding onto what I said I would do or what I had planned I would do when a different choice makes much more sense (and is often more simplified — although not necessarily easier to execute) is to be avoided. Move with what feels right and move through the suffering when I feel a bit lost, things emerge there.
on labour…women, representation:
More info on repatriation in previous blog including official British Museum statements:
Portrait on my daughter by:
http://www.stephanieforrest.com/about-1
