What things are made of

There have been some questions about what I made these sculptures out of, so I am going to give a short description of some of my processes.

The corsets are laser cut from 1.5mm steel: thin enough to form with a rubber hammer, yet sturdy enough to hold a shape and not be bent easily. I would have made them out of stainless, but I didn't have a way to weld them. The pattern for the pieces was rather complex to make: There were a couple of ridiculous hours I spent in front of a mirror covering my torso in plastic wrap and then tightly wrapping duct tape... I felt more like a contortionist than an artist. I drew on the lines of the main corset shape and stays, then cut the pattern off of my body, cut it into the individual pattern pieces, and then transfered the shapes to paper. From there I drew the design of the corset 'fabric', which is taken from my tattoos. Through the residency I was given the opportunity to have steel cut at Sean AG, a company in a nearby town. Mr. Jorg Sean was a wonderful help and host: he scanned in my drawings, converted them to the cad files, and then gave me a tour of the company while the steel was being cut. I was amazed at how fast the process was, and I had my pieces done that same afternoon. I then hand formed each piece and welded them together using a MIG.... a kind of tricky task with that thin of steel. After the welds were ground I had the corsets sand blasted and then I clear coated it, which is why it has that nice matt gray color. I hope to take pictures of them in the future actually on a person. I like the idea of how the flesh will be pressed out of the holes in the steel... I have always been fascinated with the blurry line between self-imposed, idealized beauty and the grotesque.

The dark body casts and the curved spine sculptures are all made out of gussasphalt, which is a mastic asphalt. It is a great material to form and cast with, because you can build it vertically. I have been fortunate enough to be one of a small handful of artists to use this to make sculptures out of. Heinz Aeschlimann, who the residency was with, owns a road surfacing company and has created the only large scale public artworks out of the material.

The body casts are a combination of gussasphalt and lace dipped in bitumen (which is like tar) I tried create a seamless transition between the surface of the skin and the lace. This work was similar in some ways to some of my old bronze cast corsets, where the skin becomes the garment. I enjoy that on these pieces, not only is the skin being laced up (or unlaced) but there is a second skin underneath.

The syringes are made out of steel, with bitumen appearing to flow out of the needles. I welded rods to pieces of Heinz's unused sculptures pieces to create a base for the bitumen flows. When bitumen is heated up it can be poured and cast, and then hardens and is ridged when cool. The glass vials at the top are actually antique wine bottles filled with a black liquid primer that is used for steel before applying asphalt - it helps make the asphalt stick to the steel.

Almost all of the materials used for the sculptures created during my residency were industrial materials from Aeschlimann international. I was lucky enough to have a well equipped studio, and a company that has everything from steel to recycled plastics to use.

I finally started cleaning up my studio here at home... so hopefully there will be new work following soon! Also, I am going to start looking for a gallery or alternative venue to reinstall my magnet piece "Artifacts of Memory", and I will post any news of that as well.