There's something about being a teenager that makes body casting especially appealing. If you've ever been to a Final Show here you know how amazing it can be -- we've seen students use the medium to turn themselves into mermaids, skeletons, glowing ghostly shells, multi-armed mythical creatures, and so much more. Once, a student made a zip-up latex replica of herself, and called it her "Impostor Suit." This semester there are several Final Projects that involve elements of body casting.
Dani's artwork is about the feeling of being trapped. She cast a full-body plaster mold of her peer Katie as a way to explore the feeling of confinement. For Dani, the artwork is as much about the process of making the cast as it is about the final sculpture. Dani hopes that using a literal human form will better portray the human emotions she wants to evoke in her viewers. Part of her art-making process was to interview Katie about the experience of having her body cast.
Katie described the casting process as enjoyable but also quite strange. While at first it felt a bit suffocating, Katie eventually found herself entering a tranquil and meditative state where she pictured herself as a beetle, the plaster her exoskeleton. The sensation of having the cast removed was particularly interesting, not unlike what she imagines a crustacean might feel like as it molts, shedding an outgrown shell.
For both Katie and Dani, body casting is a new and exciting medium full of possibility, providing an opportunity to manipulate the human form in any way imaginable while also maintaining relatable realism.
