What Can I Do With These Babies

[Merlion]

It may interest you that when I was doing a clay model of a foetus, an unborn baby, I got disapproving comments from some of my friends. Apparently they cannot stand the sight of a foetus, finding it too eerie.

As I had no intention of making an art statement, I modified the clay model to that of a new-born baby still in the foetal position.

After this I had flexible mold made and have now casted it in plaster, see below, one with color added to see the effect. They are smaller than life size.

Now I have to start thinking about what can I do with many baby sculptures?

I may put them on a conveying belt and have them coming out of a machine, perhaps as a reaction to the local government policy of encouraging more babies to counter the low birth rate.

I may have them coming out of a machine, but showing the hands of the parents in producing them.

Or I may instead have them piling up on top of each other to form a pyramid.

Following the good example of Blake, may I ask for comments and suggestions from others in this community?

(By the way, I notice my image file takes up 64 kB, bigger than 40KB, and may get rejected by this website. If so, I'll come back to try again.)

[Merlion]

One of the ideas I am going to try is to cast this baby with silicone rubber.

I'm not sure if I'll leave it white or to add some colour to it. In this case the baby sculpture is not hard like others but slightly soft. Too soft is not suitable as this will make it feel like a soft baby doll.

But as I am going to cast silicone rubber in molds of the same material, I have to make sure the separator is good and carefully applied everywhere, otherwise I think they will stick to each other.

[Merlion]

Good. I've found a place to take photos of these babies on a small conveyer belt. It is in a conveyer belt sushi restaurant which I know well.

I was thinking of putting them in glass cylinders, but cannot find suitable ones. Instead I manage to show the same effect using thick flexible plastic sheets.

It is great fun. I'll attach a photo of them here.

But I now notice one big problem. Gosh! As the photo shows that they are in a restaurant setting placed on a sushi conveyer belt, it gives the perception that I am putting babies on the belt to be served as food, to be eaten. It has become a carnivorous installation, a horrid. This is not my intention of course. :mad: :( :confused:

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

[Merlion]

With these babies, I have to change tack, away from the previous unintentional ghastly installation. Instead of a conveyer belt, I have to put them on soft beddings, to make it closer to a hospital environment. The result is as shown. :)

Perhaps an appropriate title for this is "More".

[Merlion]

Continuing my exploration with displaying these baby sculptures, I pursue further the ideas of soft beddings, and a production line.

As I have some silky white netting used as decoration for Halloween parties, I spread it out and put the cradles on top. I next arrange the cradles two by two in a line. The outcome is shown below, a bit like they are being transported down from heaven resting on a cloud.

I'll modify the title somewhat, and call it "More Please".

[Merlion]

My exploration continues. One of the baby sculptures I have put aside is cast in resin filled with some marble powder. It ends up being translucent but not white, as I didn't want to put too much powder. My reasoning was that too much powder would make the resin too thick to pour and to fill up well the various cavities. A photo of it is shown below.

Instead of leaving this baby sculpture a reject, what can I do with it ?

Suddenly I had a brain wave. I could put a small light bulb inside, and put this baby inside a transparent 'human head'. Perhaps I'd call the finished work "Pregnant".

I have some idea how to make this transparent human head, or a profile representation of it, out of clear acrylic sheets. It is difficult to explain verbally, so I'll show it when this is done and can be photographed.

[Merlion]

I now have something to show on putting the 'foetus' into a 'brain', see below. As mentioned, the human head is depicted as two profiles cut on transparent acrylic sheets and placed at right angle to each other.

The work is still on going of course, as the details have to be improved A small light still has to be inserted into this 'foetus'. I think I'll keep my original idea naming this sculpture "Pregnant".

Digressing a bit, I notice for taking this photo, and perhaps for displaying the final sculpture, the lighting has to be different from that for normal sculptures. For instance, I now have to use a flash when I normally would not use it.

It is nice and enjoyable for me that the creative juice can keep flowing. And it is also nice and enjoyable, not only for gaining experience fast, when the outcomes can be seen without too much delay. This is what has been happening since these 'babies' were born.

And it is even nicer if I can receive comments from any of you. They are most welcome.

[grommet]

I like the direction you're going with the head & the foetus. It's a bit more unusual to me than some of the ones with repetition. I think the translucent quality of the resin is interesting also.
When I am working in mixed media, one goal is to transcend the materials I started with. That is to say either you can no longer tell for sure what I used to make it, or you can tell, but the image is unusual enough that it doesn't matter what it's made of.
I think one hazard of working with the baby/foetus is that it can look like a doll. I still get a bit of that impression from some of the pieces.
I think your methodical investigation of the possibilities of the foetus form is great & I look forward to seeing what's next. :)

[Merlion]

Thanks for your insights Grommet. I agree the idea of a foetus inside the head is generally more interesting than displaying many babies, and that making baby sculptures has the problem that they may look like dolls unless the sculptures are good artworks.

So far I can manage to make this head out of acrylic sheets and to mount the foetus inside. I do have in my workshop an acrylic sheet of suitable thickness, and as can make use of a power jigsaw at my art college.

But putting lights inside the foetus pose a bit of problem. It is not a major problem, but small difficulties cause some delay, like drilling a big enough hole, and sourcing and trying out small torch light bulbs and mountings.

[Merlion]

Good. I have managed to put the light into this 'foetus' and to make it works, see photo below. There are still many details to iron out, to make the connections more permanent, make the light brigher, etc.

Ah! But, why not make the light switch on and off like some Christmas lights? Or make it a bright light that switches on for a short while after irregular durations. After all, if one is 'pregnant with ideas', the ideas are not switched on all the time.

On the other hand, I have to pause and review the situation. I am now going into a different territory. It requires different tools and facilities from what I have been doing. It is exciting to diversify into new areas. But is this the time to go into this? I do need to sleep over this.

[grommet]

Just a thought...
Because of the somewhat austere appearance of this piece I don't get the "pregnant with ideas" read from it... I get more "growing or incubating an idea". Pregnant with ideas I would expect to be lush with color and shapes. Or it could just be me thinking that... alone... while people sit on the sidelines... smirking... Umm... anyone else have input?
Beyond that, I thing the addition of light(s) has interesting possibilities. Sounds like fun, roll with it.

[Merlion]

Because of the somewhat austere appearance of this piece I don't get the "pregnant with ideas" read from it... I get more "growing or incubating an idea". Pregnant with ideas I would expect to be lush with color and shapes.

It is possible. If this has flashing lights, it can be flashing lights of different colors.

On the other hand, regretfully I have decided to put these ideas aside for the moment, as I am not ready at this stage to go into electrical and electronic devices and their supporting facilities.

But I am still continuing to explore other use for these baby sculptures. The idea comes while watching TV news, specifically the natural catastropies causing so many deaths and so much sufferings in different parts of the world, the Tsunami, Katrina, the Kashmir earthquake. I remember while washing these baby sculptures in the water basin, one of them, the silicone rubber cast, when half submerged, looked horribly like a floating baby corpse. This is one of the saddest sights that one can imagine.

After adding 'special effects' to this floating baby corpse idea, the end results, again just for exploration, are as shown.

[Merlion]

I think I have more or less exhausted what I can do with these foetus/baby sculptures. At least for the time being, I'll also put this line of exploration aside.

But arising from my usage of light bulbs a few days ago, one of the new line of exploration for me to make use of lights to make 3D artworks that look like something is burning. One strong impression on me from watching the TV news is the sight of burning of hundreds of cars in Paris and other French cities. Of course something similar is fire from the bombing of so many vehicles in Iraq.

Anyway, if I pursure this and would like to talk about it in this Forum, it has to be in another thread.