Irma Flores
Title: Unborn Medium: Clay, glass, fabric Size: 12 cm x 10 cm April 2016 Exhibition Text For this piece, I focused on creating a small and delicate representation of a very serious matter, abortion. My main intentions were to demonstrate the realistic size of what a fetus looks like and to add a bit of irony to it. There’s a pacifier and a little sock to add that sweet feel to it, and a hand made out of clay underneath to show that someone has the life of the fetus under their hands (meaning the option to either abort or not), plus other items such as short glass vase with tiny white flowers because white flowers symbolize death, which is why they're present in funerals. I used Martin Hudáček’s sculptures as an inspiration for my piece, incorporating some of those same metaphors into mine but in a different way. Clay sculptures are the only self-made items within the medium. |
Process
Planning
This project was one that took me a long time of brainstorming and things like that to get it done. The whole theme of this project was to make something that represented a sacred thing to you and that it was placed inside a vessel, or a vessel was placed inside of what was sacred to you, it was all up to how you wanted to manipulate meaning and symbolism. Another thing was that 80% had to be made out of clay. Right away I though of a woman's stomach because it can represent a vessel by the way in which it carries a baby for 9 months. But I had the feeling that it was just to simple or too basic, so from there I moved into the idea of abortion. The sketches below are the process of my brainstorming.
Planning
This project was one that took me a long time of brainstorming and things like that to get it done. The whole theme of this project was to make something that represented a sacred thing to you and that it was placed inside a vessel, or a vessel was placed inside of what was sacred to you, it was all up to how you wanted to manipulate meaning and symbolism. Another thing was that 80% had to be made out of clay. Right away I though of a woman's stomach because it can represent a vessel by the way in which it carries a baby for 9 months. But I had the feeling that it was just to simple or too basic, so from there I moved into the idea of abortion. The sketches below are the process of my brainstorming.
Building
Fetus
Since the whole meaning of my piece is abortion, it was necessary to have a fetus involved. I wasn't able to make it out of the clay that was provided for us, which is why I went to a local store and bought some that was both more manageable and more realistic. The clay that I bought had both it's pros and cons. Some pros were that it matched the color of melanin perfectly, but at the same time, it was a bit difficult to work with because it was extremely soft, so if I gripped it too hard, it would change the form of my fetus. |
Hand
The process of making my hand was all about trial and error. The very first time, I grabbed a blob of clay and free-handed an outline of a hand, then carved through it. It looked really bad, so I smashed it and thought of another way to make a better one. That's when I thought about using my hand as an outline and then having someone carve it. So I went ahead with that idea and asked my mom to carve my hand with a knife. It came out better than I thought, and although part of a finger seemed like it was going to fall off, it never did once it got fired. |
Placing
I was debating whether to have a box present or not. I bought baby clothing to symbolize the presence of an actual baby. I also bought a pacifier, two little socks, a hat, and some baby soap just because those are some of the most vital things to a newborn. I also bought a short, circular glass vase to place the fetus in. I painted the box black to represent death and glued the clothing plus the other items on there to get rid of it in the end. For some reason that I can't explain, I wasn't content with how it looked, so I decided to place just the hand with the vase on instead of the box. |
Meaning/Theme of the Piece
The theme of my piece is to represent abortion, and how the decision of wether aborting or not lies in the mothers hands. The main purpose of it is to convey the viewers attention with irony and symbolic objects. The glass shape is topped with a crown-shape full of white flowers, which are the ones that are used in funerals and that here, are representing the death of an unborn baby who's mom chose to abort him. I placed the fetus inside of the glass because this was the part that creates the vessel with is part of my main intentions. i represents how the fetus is in real life with the mother in her stomach. It even has that same curved shape to it. Underneath it, there's the hand. The hand represents the fetus's mother who literally holds the life of the baby, and it is up to her wether or not she wants to or is going to abort. The little sock and the pacifier are physical things that are there to demonstrate what the child is never going to be able to use, because if the mother aborts, they will never get to live their life. |
Artistic Inspiration
My artistic inspiration for this project comes from Martin Hudace. He is a Slovakian artist who focuses on capturing post abortion pain, mercy, and forgiveness. He doesn't focus so much on paintings or mediums as such, but instead, on sculptures that provide a deep message and feel to the viewer. Because the meanings and the themes are very similar, I chose him as an inspiration because it ties in well with what my project is all about. |
Reflection
Overall, I really like this project and what I created off of it. I feel like not a lot of people are conscious of the serious matter that abortion is. Whether your pro-life or pro-choice, abortion is most likely a controversy that will never have a true solution or end to it. I am really happy with my piece, I believe it is unique and I portray everything I wanted to, including my main intentions, the metaphors, and the strong meaning to it.
Overall, I really like this project and what I created off of it. I feel like not a lot of people are conscious of the serious matter that abortion is. Whether your pro-life or pro-choice, abortion is most likely a controversy that will never have a true solution or end to it. I am really happy with my piece, I believe it is unique and I portray everything I wanted to, including my main intentions, the metaphors, and the strong meaning to it.