So just when I thought I had finished, I was awake much of the night thinking … and it always strikes me as remarkable but strangely right that my working process often involves going back to the beginning, fishing out something I had started and discarded and seeing its value – something akin to incorporating failure.
These small cast resin blocks (max 9-10cms on the longest side) were supposed to be perfect cubes and sanded to perfect transparency. For a start I made the classic mistake when making the mould – forgetting to work to the internal dimensions – and then I didn’t put enough shellac so the blocks were difficult to get out of the MDF mould so lots of sanding later, helped by Lindsey, they ended up still needing more sanding to get them to the perfect shiny, transparent state.
BUT I kind of liked them how they were and despite going to Screwfix and getting a sander, I have spent nearly the whole year NOT sanding them.
Looking again at Rachel Whiteread’s resin pieces, which I remember researching for my BA dissertation (if I remember rightly, there was a link between translucence and the feminist notion of the immanent other), I realised I just had to get back in the studio this morning and play with those initial pieces!
