Bronze casting

Year 2, semester 2, 2008

3 week elective

The process involved dipping several layers of casting sand over the wax mold

Exciting sensory experience watching, smelling and hearing the wax melt and burn out of the molds

The molten bronze pours into the molds

Bronze tells a lasting tale of cultures lost to time.

Bronze is also among the primary materials for sculpture because it is a classical, noble material. Bronze has a history.

I have looked at bronze works by Michele Oka Doner for their organic properties, and also Giuseppe Penone, whose work addresses the relationship between man and nature. According to Penone, the similarities between bronze and plant life are astonishing and must assuredly have great importance in the development of the technique of casting. In bronze, plant life preserves all of its appearance.... Penone uses bronze, not for its noble historical nature, but for its intrinsic properties, like an organism reacting to environmental conditions.

I have chosen to cast a bowl and spoon and through research have decided the function of my object is a salt cellar. Salt, like bronze also has a long history. Salt is associated with value and worthiness . The Bible has a reference; “Witness, we are the salt of the earth”. An important use of salt is as a preservative. One meaning of the expression salt of the earth is as asserting the duty to preserve the purity of the world. Another interpretation is that it orders the audience to take part in the world rather than withdraw from it.

Looking at Nicholas Bourriaud and his relational aesthetics, I want my work to create a social environment in which the audience comes together to participate in a shared activity. In many cultures, particularly in Eastern Europe, offering bread and salt is a customary form of welcome. By offering bread and salt to the audience, I am expressing environmental concerns. I have chosen not to add salt to the bread and want the audience to first of all pass the salt cellar around, each placing a small portion of salt into the palm of their hand and then helping themselves to the bread.

Bread without salt isn't very palatable, so by offering it in this way I am saying that many take the addition of salt for granted. Salt comes from our sea. The sea controls the planet, climate and water circulation. Destroy our sea through pollution, plunder and global warming and we have no future. Consider the state of our planet, don't take it for granted.

Eat this bread and be prepared to act to make it a better place for future generations.