landscape & gender: 3d materials and processes: starting to consider exploring landscape & gender in some 3d form. stocked up on object making materials – about as 3d as i can get; herculite plaster, terracotta clay and magma white clay which i could fire later. something about walking in the landscape during the snow has me thinking about sprig molds and impressions on material. the mold; a negative shape catching something that isn’t there, an idea of something or movement. having just read Rebecca Solnit’s text about landscape and gender, the idea of something or ‘the intangible’ is usually ascribed to male, whereas the material, corporeal and body is usually ascribed to female. could this be disrupted?
sprig molds: this seems like a starting place. i like the idea of using sprig molds as a quick, spontaneous way to make form. it also suggests positive/negative which is a well-worn metaphor for gender but it might be a way of working object into the exploration of landscape and gender in terms of inside/outside, positive/negative, intangible/object and question those binaries.
landscape & gender – movement and perspective: it could also be possible to develop the idea of landscape & gender in relation to perspective further using these materials and processes. the linking of landscape & gender through perspective arose in my short video/experiment. also, as part of my contextual study research reading, one of the things that caught by attention when reading Solnit’s thoughts on landscape was what she called “performance photography” as used by Dennis Oppenheim in “Rocked Hand” (1970); an 8mm film documenting how his right hand covers his left hand with stones from the earth until covered and invisible – an act staged for the camera. this might be a useful process as part of my exploration of 3d means when looking at landscape, gender and perspective or movement. as i have set myself the challenge of developing 3d work from lens based work, this might be a kind of transition or perhaps 3d object based work could lead back to lens based work again using photography or video.
process: just made a sprig mold using objects from a selection of domestic objects and found objects i collected from around the house. i was drawn to their shape and texture rather than any symbolic meaning. objects chosen could also be receptacles for the imprint or could be the objects to impint as i have used here. i could also look at outdoor objects or found objects while out walking. there could be interesting ways of combining these, again looking at disrupting binaries. there could also be interesting ways of combining the same object along a line or a seam – prehaps relating to the perspective which i touched on last session- a view like i was walking down the middle in a place i’m not usually able to go.
refection pre process: revisiting mold and cast making processes is with some trepidation. the world is already full of objects with existing meanings and language. what will be my reason for creating or re-creating objects that already exist? and in making them, what will be my criteria for my selection of the objects to use? in making object based work – is its form to show something, say something or be something? i suppose i am better working quickly rather than trying to premept how it links back to any establised line of inquiry.
reflection post process: needn’t have worried – a useful way to work as they suggest so many things; things within things, things opening up or coming together, ways to disrupt lines of symmetry and view points. ways to disrupt meanings and binaries about gender and landscape – objects as landscape. might remake the molds using fine casting plaster rather than herculite as it seems powdery but i’ll wait til they cure fully. next step: maybe cast with clay.
reference: Solnit, R (2003) As Eve Said to the Serpent, On Landscape, Gender, and Art. Athens Georgia: The University of Georgia Press.
a useful link (plaster mixing rations) http://www.maragon.co.uk/plaster-guide.html
elaine crowe 
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