Ashes to Something - Artistic research
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My research started with me wanting to do something with residue. Something that stays behind. Maybe that is because I usually don't leave such an impression myself, maybe it is just because materials that change and decay fascinate me or maybe just because I wanted to do something with water and draining in the decor I was designing for Atropa.
I started with different substances in water and with what stays behind when the water gets drained. As you can see in the pictures to the left I've tried different materials over different soils. Aside from some pretty decent pictures and some more knowledge of the materials I didn't really get any combination I wanted to continue with. |
The ashes spoke to me though. The way it's created. What it used to be. What I can do with it now that it is something so dead and seemingly useless.
I didn't really know what to do with it though, but since I had to show something the next presentation I decided to step right out of my comfort zone, smear it on my naked body and take pictures of it so everyone could see. Yay. At this point I didn't know I would circle back to this later so it felt pretty useless. No idea what to do with it. |
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So now I had to think of something else to do with ash. I mixed it with glue and water and made a rather crude mask with the mixture. (I unfortunately don't have pictures of this and it is now broken.) That did not get me anywhere whatsoever.
Then from somewhere came the idea to compare different kinds of ashes. Since there are so many things in this world that can burn and turn to ash I focused on different kinds of paper. I did not only compare it by how it looked, but also from left to right: by how it looked on the skin, how it looked dry on paper, how it looked wet on cloth and how it looked wet on paper. Smearing ashes from paper on other paper somehow strongly reminded me of cannibalism. I have tried more kinds of paper than the few you see here on the left. I found it very interesting that even though there were all kinds of paper the ashes were all very different! In color, structure and how well it could be used on canvas, paper or skin. |
How it could be used on the body interested me the most. How it was used for rituals in the past. I started drawing lines to the rituals we now perform every morning. Make-up. These are not the most flattering photos I have of me, but then research isn't always flattering. The world would be nowhere if there was only beauty.
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