The Domestic in Wax

I am currently putting together a show called DOMESTIC DISHARMONY and I am working on some new pieces to have in the show. I am going to show the print ‘Traces’ from the crit show as I had some really good feedback from that piece and I really want to show it again to a wider audience and outside of the dirty studio environment where our crit shows take place.

I had an idea for a piece that I call ‘The Seven Dwarves’ this will consist of seven wax cans in the stages of crumpling on a box shelf. The cans represent empty alcoholic drinks that can be left around the home by parents. The stages of crumpling in the cans also refers to the deterioration of the home. How a situational place can decay. One thing that I find quite interesting is how parents or guardians tell their children fairy tales and stories to mask what’s really going on in the home. By influencing the child’s imagination, it distracts them from what’s really going on around them. these stories are also used to help children understand happenings in the world, in a stranger sense.

The second piece I decided to make for this show called ‘Delicate Management’ is a take on domestic hierarchy. I reused the iron I made for the asylum photo-shoot, and placed it onto a small white board on the floor, looking up to a piece of lace that I had previously dripped in wax so that it holds its ghostly form, the lace hung on the wall. Both of these wax pieces are scented, the iron of ecru linen and the lace of fresh cotton, these smells the become over powering in the space and play off of each other, becoming nostalgic and nauseating to the viewer.

I am really excited to be setting up for this show soon! Keep a look out for more posts to follow!