Out of my comfort zone - casting in concrete!

My latest work, a cubist caricature of John Lennon, heavily influenced by the recent Francis Bacon exhibition , especially around the eyes!

 

Unusually for me, this was made initially in clay but then cast in concrete using a plaster waste mould as part of our first project in sculpture at Meadowbank TAFE.

While I am quite happy with the result, in retrospect, the amount of effort that went into making the mould just to cast one piece seems totally disproportionate and I wish I had taken the extra step (and cost!) and made a reusable mould in silicon rubber.

I am also slightly disappointed in the weight of the finished piece. One of my reasons for exploring mediums other than fired ceramic, is weight, clay being very heavy, it restricts the maximum size I feel happy handling. Even though this piece only has a concrete "skin", filled  with expandable foam to reduce the weight, it is still very heavy! If I had made a reusable mould, I could have experimented with using lightweight materials such as the expandable foam alone.

On exhibition

My Frog Doorman on exhibition in the Sculpture Society's Towers Exhibition.

 

My Hung Parliament was deemed inappropriate for this location since  it gets visited by politicians and we have to safeguard their fragile egos!