Title: Life?
Artist Comments: This is an installation that I worked on with artist Chris Coleman. It was a crossover project for his sculpture and electronic media classes. It is a piece about letting someone go when they are already dead. We had limited time on the project, so I began with a plastic model of a skull and built up the flesh with pottery clay, which I sealed together with paper and glue. (the trickiest part was sculpting the ears... with the nose a close second) Chris did a fabulous approximation of his skeleton and upper body from wood, which we draped with paper and glue, and finished off with tissue paper. I wanted to use the paper to emphasize the figure's frailty, and also to be reminiscent of the delicate-looking skin that very old people have. His legs morphed into roots toward the bottom, to symbolize that he wants to return to the earth. The piece was accompanied by a video that included footage of a breathing machine, a visible heartbeat, and a very elderly person's wringing hands.