Thursday 15 December 2011

The Deer, the Bread and the Teeth

This year I have taken up stalking deer and have used my response to this in my art. Instead of sticking the antlers on the wall, I did the usual thing(!) and put them in bread. There is not much rationale for this, its just I like working in bread. It is useful for me to use the various bones, antlers and teeth from deer and play with them as, at the moment, I don't really understand my fascination for stalking.  Is there something instinctual, maybe, about me connecting with the hunter/gatherer inside me?
The first two pieces of work below are roe buck antlers. After cooking, the antlers became brittle and cracked on cooling which is why they look shorter, blunt and broken.






The next two photos are some red deer teeth I found in the woods. They look a bit comical but also rather sinister.






This is the lower jaw of a roe deer. It has 32 teeth, including 8 at the front  which look rather like feet!







From these works so far, what I have learned is to just be quite fluid and spontaneous while working with the materials and not think too hard or plan what I am going to do. The response to the lower jawbone took only 5 mins to conceive and 15 mins to cook and it is an interesting and intriguing little object.   I compare this with very lengthy planning and baking of my bread bodies over the last few years! 

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