The Destruction of the Lover

'The Destruction of the Lover' was my piece for our end of year exhibition. It consisted of  6mm steel members welded together to form a gralloch table. A gralloch table is usually a stainless steel table for holding the deer while preparing it for the larder.  On it were some bones from the ribcage of a roe deer.

Originally I was looking at a bread response to the gralloch table and worked on this for about 3 weeks. No matter what I tried, it didn't look right but I did do some interesting experimentation with dough, leaving it for a day or two, stretching it and opening it up.  Below are some of the structures  I found:

In the end my tutor said "ditch the dough' and that led the way for me to find another solution for the piece.  I like the contrast between the two materials. Metal - black, hard, cold, rigid, man-made.   Bones - white, fragile, raw, natural.   One of my peers said she thought it was a very masculine piece of work which was interesting.  The title is a play on Louise Bourgeois's piece 'The Destruction of the Father'.

The Feelie Pudding

How are you feeling today?
If you are feeling rough , you can punch me.
If you are feeling gentle, you can cuddle me.
If you are feeling erotic, you can squeeze me. 

The Feelie Pudding was made in response to a brief for an exhibition  called 'Sensation' at The Old Ambulance Depot.   I wanted to make work that could respond to the viewers senses and be interactive as well.  Dough was an obvious answer for me. It is nice to the touch,  squeezable,  squidgy, palpable, can even be quite sensual.   Wrapping it in gingham material was in keeping with a homely, domestic situation and it was exhibited at the end of and on a piece of washing line.  I had to make it as near as possible to the exhibition because after a few days, it starts to go off, ferments and explodes out the bag!

Watching viewers at the exhibition interact with it was fascinating and quite amusing. Most people just hit it and let it swing around, others felt it and squeezed it, sometimes almost unconsciously while chatting.  The funniest thing, which several people did, was to balance it on their heads!