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URBAN VOTIVES
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Sculpting clay model heads to slush cast from in Jesmonite. Regarding the head as the seat of the soul, casts explore the theatrical allure of emotive colour to evoke a conversational dialogue between her fantastical characters facial expressions of anger, peace, happiness and frustration that define the story about to enter marriage. Taking inspiration from spiritual ritual acts of penance and Carnival histories of the Beltane Fire Festival, narratives of desire and surreal characters mined from pagan sites, such as Arthur's Seat, in Edinburgh. Beltane celebrates the revival of the Green man's fertility and courtship entering Summer Soltice with a seductive performance of the May King and Queen getting married.
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The beginning of lockdown brought reflection on her recent engagement from being contained in a small living space with her partner and spending almost every second in a pair as they began to mirror each other. Through this dramatic change in living due to the pandemic, there seemed no other option but to be positive, occupied, and motivated by drawing self-portraits of them. The stark contrast between the urban alienation that was happening and their relationships growing intimacy, extracted her from reality and time to be propelled into fantasy of happiness, bliss.
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Following the movements of her mind, the third lockdown self-portrait embodies a visual fantasy that occurred in a dream state of her and her partner's heads connected to become a whole, similar to the two-headed Greek God Janus, who looks simultaneously to the past and future. Inspired by the materialities of Greek Tragedy, specifically the theatrical mask of the character. The maintained surface of the mask highlights emotions and signifies you are in character distinguished away from your anonymous self. Masks amplify the way in which skin is a barrier, acting as a marker of separation between the character and the audience.
Sculpting the clay model of this surreal self-portrait incorporates traces of my hands imprint into the slush casts, this casting technique enables her to create skin-like layers to highlight the animacy in its materiality. The animacy of the object also derives from the relationship between the depicted characters as they inform an oscillating dialogue between each other’s varied facial expressions. It is interesting to think about how in the act of touching the object, she is also being touched by it.
Carrying both two-headed casts up to the pinnacle of Arthur’s Seat in the fading of the light. This ceremonial cathartic laborious act bares the soul, a confrontation of emotions and is a reflection of shared emotions a part of a relationship broadcasted into the community.
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Hindle's fantasy depicts her ritualistic journey of walking up towards her matrimonial future to place the colourful urban votives of both two-headed casts on top of Arthur's Seat pinnacles as offerings for good luck.
