Plaster busts: Turkish Girls

I've been intermittently asked to make busts to commission which I've always declined to do because a) commissions can be a nightmare and b) the suggested subject matter didn't interest me. But a proposal from a very cool new design gallery in Istanbul was very intriguing.

Sanayi 313 asked me to create two limited edition busts with a Turkish theme exclusively for them, giving me complete carte blanche as far as the design was concerned.

A quick image search on Turkish costume and architecture opened a palette of fascinating imagery and I realized it could be a lot of fun to collage some of this together. 

Not surprisingly the yashmak was immediately very appealing as it fitted well with my tendency to conceal parts of the faces of my plaster busts, adding an air of mystery and remoteness which I've been interested to explore. (See Librarian)

Iconic Turkish costume element number two of course had to be the fez - with the biggest tassle I could get away with. I've played around with tassels very often in my work - see this post on the tassel subject  There's something extremely sculptural about a tassel.

I wanted to introduce a contemporary element in juxtaposition with traditional and historic costume and did some interesting research into current Turkish fashion designers.

I really like the sculptural work of sisters Ece and Ayse Ege and their brand Dice Kayek  and I interpreted one of their designs, using folded paper in my sculpture. (Hope they don't mind!)

Naturally I had to include a piece of architecture and Enis Karavil at Sanayi sent me a model of the Galati Tower in Instanbul which seemed a perfect extension of the fez.

Releasing the first cast from the mould

Traditional Turkish costume is elaborately decorated and bejeweled and it was fun sourcing these elements for my sculptures (thanks Primark!) 

So this is how bust number one in the commission turned out - introducing -  Turkish Girl ......

...and her companion, bust number two -  Other Turkish Girl

One element of traditional Turkish costume I was very delighted to be able to reference was the coin decorations on the headgear which I've always found alluring and exotic. (though pretty hard to cast from!). 

As with the first bust, it was important to introduce references to contemporary Turkish fashion and I found another interesting sculptural piece by Dice Kayek which had an elemental geometric form which I interpreted with pyramids of folded card (nightmare to attach to the body!!) 

For the architectural element, it just had to be Anitkabir, Ataturk's Mausoleum.  How the Acropolis would have been designed if Modernism had been invented in the 5th century - and right up my street. 

Peeling of the silicone mould from the first cast. Both busts came out amazingly well given the amount of surface detail which needed to be picked up the silicone, not to mention the cantilevered shape created by the architecture on top.

This extremely simple, un-ornamented architectural form was the perfect foil to the intense detailing of the costume.

Making the silicone moulds for both busts - an extremely long winded process as the silicone needs to built up layer upon layer. But thankfully they both turned out well.

The busts are available in limited editions of 10 each exclusively at Sanayi 313  here's an installation shot courtesy of this blog

And here's an interior shot courtesy of another blog (great restaurant too apparently!)

Sanayi 313 - launched in March 2015 - is an extremely cool destination with a fabulous collection of interesting art and design, much of it unique and exclusive to the gallery.  So I reckon my first commissioned plaster busts are in good company. (But don't queue up - working to commission is extremely difficult for a long list of reasons!)  

Turkish Girl + Other Turkish Girl

See the rest of my Plaster Bust Collection

Public sculpture, Llanederyn, Cardiff

I know I'm not the only artist to be seduced by the powerfully instinctive artwork often made by young kids so I was really delighted to be offered the opportunity to collaborate with primary school kids to create sculptural reliefs for a subway near their school.

I was invited by artist Louise Shenstone to work together on the project. Louise came up with the concept and created the paintings behind my reliefs. She did workshops with the kids of Springwood Primary, Llanederyn (Cardiff) getting them to make drawings, collages and plaster reliefs based on their observations of the local architecture. This is predominantly 1960s so all their work had a definite Modernist vibe - right up my street - which lends itself perfectly to a fairly abstract 'cut-out' style of imagery

I made 6 different reliefs, referencing the kid's plaster casts.

These are some of their fantastic collages based on local architecture. Louise did a brilliant job running the workshops and got them to produce wonderful work. She then designed her wall painting taking elements of their collages.

And these are some of the plaster reliefs which they designed from their collages.  When I saw the photos I said to Louise - wow,  you don't need me!  Looking at them had quite an impact on my approach to my work actually - i.e. don't overthink it and don't get hung up on neatness! Their reliefs have so much immediacy and simplicity.

I tried to keep the flavour of their sculptures in mine and worked in exactly the same way i.e. casting from all kinds of scrap materials with lots of different textures.  Each of my reliefs references some elements of theirs.

The best thing about the project was how very close the finished mural was to the kids' work. They could totally have done the whole commission themselves (if they'd been a bit older and bigger!).

I really loved a collage one kid did with a TV aerial - they really summed up TV aerials and I tried to copy their version.

When Louise first described the project to me I was slightly concerned that the difference in scale between my sculptures and her painting might be problematic, but in the event, I think the juxtaposition of large painted shapes and more intricate relief sculpture works very well. 

After making plaster casts from my initial scrap collages I then had to take a silicone mould to give to my fabricator to make a final cast in a hard concrete-based material for the subway wall.  

Casting from random low-key and scrap materials is exactly what I do when making my plaster busts so that process was completely in my zone, except it was nice to work on a larger scale - and an awfully lot easier doing it flat than three-dimensionally.

I made 2 casts of each design so each appears against a different background. I absolutely loved the colours Louise used.

I've always wanted to cast from bubble wrap and Louise had done that with the kids so here was my chance to try it out! Love it!

When I make the headgear for my plaster busts I quite often use cardboard box packaging because they're often great abstract shapes.  When I flattened out this box it seemed to suggest a very cool Modernist building - actually, I wouldn't mind a house like that myself.

Yes, well done young artist! You really nailed it! 

It was interesting working with negative relief again as in my two large public sculptures - also in Wales:

Cynon Valley Hospital   and  St Davids Shopping Centre, Cardiff

Thanks to the artists at Springwood Primary - it was great working with you guys!