In the tutorial yesterday, I mentioned using a roll of toilet paper on top of a sculpture in my next work. That idea was premature – I just thought of it in the tutorial. I thought more about it later, and decided to mediate the two ideas, with the artists I came across this semester, and previous experience with metal workshops. The idea is a sheet of steel the same width, and approximate length as a loo roll that’s unrolled. This will be hung on the wall, the same height as how a loo roll is placed. I will draw plans of several variations of it. I have chosen toilet roll as a reaction to the panic buys in relation to the toilet roll shortage this year, and how it made the object a highly sought commodity. But on a deeper level, it’s psychoanalytical because it references one of the psychosexual phases. Materially, the metal sheet that appears dangling on the wall resembles Robert Morris’ felts, but in static form.

I want to include toothpaste squeezed out the tube in a vertical way so its shape is similar to paint squeezed out the tube, and is more ephemeral than the metal because its shape can be altered or rubbed away.

The metal sheets and the fluidity of materials poetically symbolise life and death, which is close to the psychodynamic ideas of life and death drives. The metal sheets are static, and therefore ‘dead’, and the malleable materials are constantly changing, symbolising life.

I’m calling it words are like toothpaste, because of the metaphorical notion of once the toothpaste is out the tube, it can’t be squeezed back in, and words are the same. It would be interesting if this is placed in the toilets of the School of Art, because bathrooms are usually places of relieving oneself, and self reflection because of the presence of mirrors.