The theme of “home” continues to occupy my art making activities. I cast a kitchen including the appliances, food and furniture in paper pulp.
stove
I cast the stove, outside in a carport, using a stove that was going to be recycled. The weather did not cooperate. Immediately after I had finished applying all the layers of pulp, it started to rain and the wind blew so hard it removed one whole side of the cast stove. Needless to say, there was much gnashing of teeth and rushing around to cover the structure. The next day a new side was cast and all was well.
Removing the dried cast paper sculpture from the actual stove went like clockwork and transporting it to the studio without having it collapse was completed without mishap.
To prevent another weather problem, I cast the oven racks and the oven door in my studio. There are still bits of dirt embedded in the body of the stove from the wild wind.
The oven door opens and closes but since the kitchen installation is in progress, there is no roast cooking in the oven yet.
refrigerator
The refrigerator was abandoned beside a building site across the street from my studio. It stood next to a fence for a few days without any activity. I went to ask the guard if it was free but was told that someone was taking it away. I watched that fridge standing beside the road for 6 weeks until the work crew started to dismantle the building site and I decided to find the site supervisor. He said, “We hoped someone would take it away”; so I did. I got my yellow dolly and bunge-corded the fridge on it. It started to leak out the bottom when it was tipped, so I investigated – there was food in the fridge in wonderful stages of decay. Oh joy! With that new info I considered my options and decided to take it anyway. A kind man helped me wheel it up my lane and push it into the back door of my studio where it was given a good scrub with Mr Clean and bleach.
Then it was ready for the paper casting process:
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