Cetacea
Wax, 8 x 6 x 3 cm, 2022
(Image: Darren Ryan)
During Covid I began a series I had been considering for a number of years, cast forms embodying the relationship between all mammals. Due to the lock-down I had to work on a smaller scale and realized that at the embryonic stage we are the most indistinguishable - dolphins exhibit hind-limb buds and all have tails. It is this stage that I have chosen to form. The forms are modeled in wax and molded, then melted out and reformed in cast bronze. For that moment before the mold is filled, there is only a void, no form, only the potential of form.
According to the Journal of Mammalogy (Oxford Academic) there are "6,495 species of currently recognized mammals (96 recently extinct, 6,399 extant)." of these "roughly one-fifth are known to be threatened or extinct " (National Wildlife Federation) The vulnerability of the lost wax casting process emphasizes the endangerment of species extinction.
Monotremata
Cast bronze, 7 x 4 x 3.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Marsupialia
Cast bronze, 6.5 x 4.5 x 4 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Afrosoricida
Cast bronze, 5.5 x 4 x 1.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Macroscelidae
Cast bronze, 6 x 4 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Tubulidentata
Cast bronze, 7 x 4.5 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Hyracoidea
Cast bronze, 6 x 4 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Proboscidea
Cast bronze, 5 x 3 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Sirenia
Cast bronze, 6.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Xenartha
Cast bronze, 6.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Scandentia
Cast bronze, 5 x 3 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Dermoptera
Cast bronze, 5 x 2.5 x 1.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Primata
Cast bronze, 5.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Lagomorpha
Cast bronze, 6.5 x 4 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Eulipotyphia
Cast bronze, 4.5 x 3 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Chiroptera
Cast bronze, 7 x 5 x 5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Pholidota
Cast bronze, 5.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Carnivora
Cast bronze, 5 x 3 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Perissodactyla
Cast bronze, 4.5 x 3 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Artiodactyla
Cast bronze, 7.5 x 4 x 2.5 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Cetacea
Cast bronze, 8 x 6 x 3 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Rodentia
Cast bronze, 5.5 x 3.5 x 2 cm, 2022
(Image: Barbara Justice)
Support provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts through an appropriation from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Special thanks to Mary Neubauer and the students in the Arizona State University Foundry Program, James L. Hayes, Tim O’Neil, Milwyn Casting and the Royal Society of Sculptors, CarlyOdegard, Bayani Darang, Erin Generaux, Ben Weil, Ben and Ash Driggs and Peter Flanary.
The Tactile and the Tenuous | Marc La Pointe - Curator
.jpg)
