Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Plaster_veneian textures

...Venetian plaster on drywall with a large trowel.


Surface Texture 1: A damp sponge was rubbed over the dry plaster prior to burnishing.

...depth

Surface Texture 2: Wet plaster layer was touched leaving finger prints/texture. When burnishing only the peaks were touched.

...thick imprints

...finger prints meet smooth


Surface Texture 3: Wet plaster was scratched.

...traces


Surface Texture 4: Water was dripped onto the dry plaster surface.

...memory of water

3 comments:

parker said...

I really like that you are investigating the various memories plaster can have of architecture. I particularly like the water drips and scratches.

Perhaps the plaster in your installation carries in it not only a memory of its creation but a memory of other space as well. From one space (say the top) you could have an experience of the others through the plaster. I don't know exactly how that would happen but the fingerprints and water drips speak as strongly to me about the memory of a material as do the palster tracing floors.

Chloe said...

Thank you for the insights and for taking the time to make comment. I agree that the 'tracings' on the plaster have the potential to construct new spaces and must have a relationship with their surrounding spaces. I have a opportunity in the mezzanine to present a pure plan or birds eye view of the floor and perhaps it is in this understanding that I make the translation from vertical to horizontal. The other potential is to allow the tracings on the floor to become a map which could be 'tilted up to form the wall. The wall intern responds to the floor, as a reflection and also by denying its support. The etchings in the floor have the opportunity to make visible the invisible translation from horizontal to vertical-from floor to base/wall. In this way I might be getting closer to the crease-to the betweenness which is base.

Memory of a material and also I think of its making. Plaster is so sensitive to the touch, it responds to influence in such a ephemeral way. It is a 'snap shot' which is deceptively manifest in a permanent way what originally was only a fleeting moment.

Chloe said...

Jen said... (Jan. 31)
The subtle ‘markings’ seem to really be powerful. Are they like a series of hieroglyphics?
A simple hand or foot might be great. But, what about something more obscure; like a hip or a knee or a shoulder.
Look at the work of Valasque Soares. (sp?) She casts her body into wax and even leaves the hairs that are pulled from her body.
Eg. She did a bench, like a church bench for praying. Indentations of knees gives a strong religious connotation and powerful emotion.