(Image of stalagmites taken from racqworld.com,https://racqliving.com.au/outdoors/what-are-stalactites-and-stalagmites/)
One of the things I am currently experimenting with is different ways of replicating not just the physical of natural formations like stalagmites but I also want to try and convey some of the awe which is experienced when looking at these natural works of alchemy. As I am not mother nature and these works are not completely natural, they are works using natural and alchemistic processes but the process is me trying to replicate or emulate mother nature.
I have been making stalagmites out of a clay called Crank. It is quite a course clay but is really good for Raku Firing. I will come back to Raku Firing as this is more process than reason.
With the stalagmites they are quite rough, I don’t want it to look to intentional or perfect, I want a natural formation. some of the stalagmites i have made hollow, now at present I am just experimenting with what things create what effect but I have made tiny holes in some of the stalagmites with the aim of placing an LED light inside the sculpture so that little pin pricks of light shine out of the stalagmites. In the right light i feel that this would be one element to creating the feeling of awe which i mentioned earlier.
(Johnston, R. Stalagmites)
When it comes to sculpture one of the artists who I constantly have in mind is Giacometti. I think of his work as unrefined which is what makes it so emotive.
(Dog, Giacometti. A, 1957, MoMA Collection, image used from https://www.europuppy.com/blog/dog-art-alberto-giacometti-and-his-dog/)
Angela Shneider comments that “The figures bear witness to the bustle and exertions of everyday life, but the work as a whole conveys an atemporal conception of life and nature.”
(Shneider, A. 1994, Alberto Giacometti , Berlin, Prestel Books, P.47)
