Evaluation of FMP

After being so ambitious with my ideas at the beginning of my FMP, I have now made something that was affordable in terms of budget. My first idea was unrealistic because I was too ambitious, it was a full body cast in a perspex box/tank, I had to abandon this idea due to budget limitations. I then went through a stage where things wouldn't fit in another idea I had, of jars, so I had to adapt my FMP again. I simplified my idea and made three casts of three different body parts to put in three different sized fish tanks, which I sourced. I planned to have three face casts, three foot casts and three clenched hands in three tanks filled with water. The process of making these casts were messy and a bit hit and miss at times until I got the consistency of the plaster and alginate right. I was constantly covered in plaster, alginate and water throughout the journey of making and displaying the piece, this was the only down fall, the mess. 

I have had trouble getting plaster hands out of alginate in one piece at times, so I thought clenched would be more efficient, as the fingers wouldn't get damaged. I was quite happy with how my hand cast used in the final piece had developed, although for one of them I didn't have enough alginate made up to get a full hand cast, so I ended up casting half a hand this has turned out to my advantage, as the piece seem to line up in height order now.

Doing my three year old niece's feet was a nightmare, it turned out that college had ordered the wrong alginate, which didn't set for over three minutes; I thought it was the quick set alginate that I had been using for the past year, I realised that this was not the case when I read the packet. To keep a three year old in one spot for over three minutes was near impossible, but I did manage to get two casts for my piece to choose from. These casts turned out with air holes in most of the feet. I mustn't have got the air out from these casts when pouring plaster in moulds but it's one thing to work on in future casting.

Casting the face was the messiest job of all, my clothes got covered in plaster and alginate, next time I will wear a protective sheet. When I was having my face cast I didn't like having straws up my nose, so I had to work on getting alginate in correct places on the nose holes before pouring plaster in the mould, but I didn't have the right tools, so I filled the nose in with my finger, it isn't perfect but it is adequate. If I could go back and change the method of creating the nose I would, all the other face casts have defects too but it all works with my idea of people "picking at" themselves for flaws, so I was excited when removing the alginate to find that the casts had defects.

A teacher from college has lent me a small tank for my exhibition and I have sourced the other two, I found one on preloved and the other a friend of my family has lent to me. I have used the tanks as my water containers, because the glass reflects my casts with the water, which makes it seem like you can see more casts than there are. I like this method because the reflections make the objects appear even more distorted.

I think my final piece looks effective for what I am trying to portray with people being so critical about themselves. There are always parts of the body people hate because of the influence that the media has on peoples self image, if you look in a mirror to long you will end up "picking yourself to pieces." Nobody seems to think they are perfect or "good enough" in this day and age, lots of people have a warped image of themselves because of this. Not everyone sees the flaws that you see in yourself, you are your own worst critic. In my piece the water will warp the casts, so it'll make them look different, I think this is how people see themselves against the critical world or what the media says.

I'm really delighted with how everything has come into place and look forward to the opening exhibition night.