Art and Reproduction Evaluation

This theme allowed me to gain skills in an area I was unfamiliar with, of sculpture and specifically plaster casting. I enjoyed the process of creating plaster casts in the workshop and returned with the idea to create casts of Barbie dolls in relation to the theme of art and reproduction. The use of the Barbie doll was key to the theme, with the iconic doll continuously being reproduced, but also the dolls in plaster have connotations of slaves which linked to the research into Plato’s cave theory with humans like slaves, only seeing reproductions of reality. The process of casting also links to reproduction with the process requiring continuously returning and reproducing the same process of dripping the wax, painting layers of latex to create the mould and then ultimately the process of reproducing the doll with the plaster.

Returning- I returned to this project after the Easter break, taking on board advice from the feedback that the sculptures were not yet complete and could be improved by taking them further. With this in mind I decided to continue with the idea of reproduction in terms of labour, by continuing a process, this time returning to the sculptures and dripping layers of paint over them. For this, I used watered down acrylic in muddy shades to reflect dirt and continue their slave like appearance. The use of colour was also discussed in the group critique, with the white plaster giving the dolls connotations of innocence and purity. I wanted this connection to remain, so I only partially covered the dolls in paint, allowing the brightness of the plaster to shine through.