2010: Body Casting Day

Saturday, 9 October 2010

Body Casting Day

The Body Casting event at the University of Portsmouth took place on Thursday the 7th of October was a success preceding my expectations. Several of the participant had read The News article the day before that highlighted the project.

all casting images by Katayoun Dowlatshahi

The event was broadcast live
by the media students.

I appreciate the many great volunteers that showed up offering their body parts to be cast as well as sharing their personal stories with me about their lives in Portsmouth.

Later in my studio when I looked at each casting mold I remembered the story attached to each of them; of a life long lived or a life about to start, of aspirations and fond memories like chapters waiting to be bound into a novel and I am eager to start assembling the parts into one unified figure.

1 comment:

Jacqui Mair said...: This was a fabulous event and made it feel like a proper art school ! thank you to Josefina for her excellent organisation and enthusiasm. Everyone who took part was made at home by her magical touch; 10 October 2010 at 15:29

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ABOUT THE PORTSMOUTH CASTING PROJECT

During my residency in Portsmouth I am developing a project that includes body castings from live local models. The idea is that these body parts from different individuals will be assembled into one figure. This figure becomes the representation for the "average" Portsmouth inhabitant. To reflect the demographics of Portsmouth have been casting male and females white British 20-40 year old average height and weight but also representatives from the less than 10% non-white British minority communities in the area as well as persons of much older age.

The starting point for my project is the techniques of the old renaissance masters Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo’s usage of several different models in order to create one ideal figure. With the Vertruvian man Da Vinci illustrated his ideas of the ideal human (proportions) which he saw as a “cosmografia del minor mondo” (cosmography of the microcosm) believing the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe. But my ideas, living in the 21^st century, of the perfect figure or human being is rather based upon the beauty of a multiethnic collage of cultures existing within the same figure. It might be more connected to a baroque (from barrocco meaning imperfect pearl) idea of the necessity of imperfection in order to achieve perfection.

Thank you all who participated!

This part of my project is now finished.