A peer sent me this picture of a bar display, knowing my piece was about glasses. In the picture the drinks and I instantly thought about the connection with rocks and power.
This also works on the consumerism aspect, as the photograph is a bar display, much like a shop display to advertise produce. It is a method of advertising to seduce the consumer into spending money.
Rocks contain power, gold and silver are mined from rocks. I could place the glasses on top of rocks rather than a plinth. I could spray or paint the rocks silver, and have the 16 glasses placed at different heights on rocks. They will work together as a collection.
The rocks as a base for the object help to lift the glasses power itself. The fact I am taking an everyday, mundane form of a rock and turning it into something beautiful and powerful is my biggest running theme- turning the ordinary into the extra ordinary.
To make the rocks, I could use clay- clay could be too heavy.
Paper Mache- this could work however I don't want it to look tacky or unconvincing.
Plaster coated paper mache, then painted/ sprayed silver.
Concrete to make rocks, over modelling gauze.
In Frieze Far 2013 I came accross Zhan Wang, a sculptor who cast rocks, and this is where my initial love for metallic objects came from.
I could smash the bottoms of the glasses and stick them directly to the rocks as if they are emerging out of them. To reflect this transformation of silver ore into silver. Reflecting this consumerist process and society. We mine rocks for their precious metals. I found in my research people want to own precious metals bebecauset reflects wealth and therefore power.
Silver is only made because the consumer desires it.
This has also made me think about the glasses themselves- they are made from rocks (sand). This links so well to show this juxtaposition.
BEFORE AND AFTER DESIRE. The affect human desire has on the earths forms.