This piece is aimed to showcase how the physicality of an animal could be altered and exploited to serve new purposes when taken out of their natural habitat and combined with domestication. This addresses how eccentric features could be transformed into recognisable, fully functioning cleaning products and utensils. ‘A Helping Hand’ takes this one step further with an octopus mop-head along with a trolly of other animal products, assisting the Cleaning Lady with her everyday jobs.
Her body is made of Fibreglass and a Sil-Skin 10 Silicone portrait head with a Fibreglass core. The Environment, Hands and Octopus mop are Photoshopped due to the Corona Virus, these elements were no longer able to be physically completed so remain half finished.
There is an intentional sadness to the composition of this image; the way in which the Cleaning Lady’s posture is hunched as she looks away from the camera and transfers her weight onto the mop. The expression on her face is tired and suggests that she too is being exploited in some way. Her physical appearance is an interpretation of what my generation could look like as old ladies, replacing the cliched ‘blue rinse, shampoo and set’, with waist-length grey hair and multiple piercings.
In her clothing, I wanted to display a slight clash in taste through different colour and pattern influences, hinting to a parallel world with contrasting vintage and modern aesthetics.
She is cast in Sil-Skin 10 Silicone and painted with Oil paints, Di Clean and Sil-Skin 10. Finished by inserting Synthetic and Human hair into the head and hair punching the eyebrows and eyelashes.
The power shifts in this next composition, as the Cleaning Lady looks directly through the camera, and beyond the eyes of the viewer. This creates a reserved intimacy which makes you question exactly what she is thinking. These close up shots provide a greater level of detail that capture the depth of the wrinkles, the blemishes in the skin and the glint of sweat from her hard work.
