Post #2 - Spikes

Spiky Form (2010)

All the work here was developed in parallel with the ceramics described in the Frustrum post. One basic shape, similar in all ways but scale. 

The finished installation above is a mix of porcelain and plaster spikes. I realised early that plaster would be impractical for mass producing the larger spikes. I hit upon a quick method - slip casting from a one piece plaster mold. I made two molds, and with the spikes being slip cast I was able to make a small amount of material go a long way. A vital aspect of a small budget.

For the smaller spikes I made a set of plastilene models of varying sizes, ranging from 30 to 150 mm in length. These I grouped as efficiently as I could and made three silicone molds. From these I could produce 40 plaster spikes at a time.

As part of the exhibition development, I played with the possibilities of lighting to see what shadows could be cast (above). In the event, the wooden walls in the building were much too dark to get a really effective display of shadow casting, but one of the test photos I took was chosen to appear on the group show poster...

Another view of the finished work. The installation was arranged either side of a pillar, making a sinuous trail. If there had been more time they would have been stuck onto the pillar as well, heading up to the ceiling.

Eastgate House in Rochester was a large space for us to fill. We had six separate rooms on two floors, all quite large, but since nobody else had anything that could fill the stairwell, I designed this 'vortex' to fill the two story void. The support plate at the top was fixed to a mirror ball motor. Had quite a time getting the thing balanced - notwithstanding the in-situ assembly. Also the whole structure had to be within the max loading spec of the motor. This necessitated cutting great big chucks out the support plate to just the parts needed to hang the threads.

The whole rotating vortex worked out very well. The stairwell had white walls so the shadows cast were much clearer, but was it was a shame it couldn't be viewed at night - the windows let too much light in. The video I shot is still on tape, and annoyingly accessible only by an old, increasingly incompatible camcorder.


Spikes Repurposed

Apart from the vortex, I recovered everything from that exhibition - maybe sixty porcelain spikes, hundreds of the small plaster ones. A year after the Eastgate House show, I had my first solo exhibition, at the Peter Blake Gallery in Dartford Library. This was my graduate show. I worked on one main installation for this final unit, but the gallery had a lot of space to fill, so from all those leftover spikes, I put this together:

Despite the limitations of the rail lighting, I was able to pull something out of the situation and this successfully  filled a large wall space.


A couple of years later...

Finally, back to making ceramics, though a measly four hours a week at Gravesend Adult Education (though Sam was good enough to let me take some clay work home with me.) I had an idea to use up my porcelain spikes, an echo of my old ideas, this time, new 'clean' spikes emerging from an old, gnarled parent.

Spiky Form at the 'What If...?' Gallery, Dartford. GNB and Norman Church in reflection.

Glazing...

Some of the remaining porcelain spikes. Whenever I used a stoneware glaze for my 'normal' wares, I would use a couple of spikes to make a test of that glaze on porcelain, which is not a regular part of the material in the studio.

I haven't taken any extreme close up photos of these as yet, but I will make a point of it as some of patterns that emerged are very striking indeed.


Next post: Tetrahedral


~J~