12 cm x 8 cm An open bite etching made with a screen print with a view to making a larger one and manipulating the zinc for the sculpture.
Screen Print on steel with a view to marking the lines with metal objects to create indentations.
Both of the above plates were made in screen printing. The first one was etched with the ink remaining and created using an ‘open bite’ and the second left with the ink image of the tears on it with a view to marking it with a hammer and metal tools.
Both of these processes were delayed due to the virus and the early closure of the University but serve to give me food for thought and materials as maquettes in the design of the proposals for the exhibition.
After exploring the tear images drawn and photographed from the microscope, I used prints of the tears on tracing paper to form a cube.
Printed tracing paper formed into a cube and suspended
Materials are being chosen for their transparency as if to stay true to the salty water that formed them. Chicken wire gives me flexibility to curl and bend the material easily and flow off the wall as I recall the movement of the crystallisation as it occurs.
Chicken wire net and cord Chicken wire and Perspex
Both of the above sculptures make a historical reference to the period in the 1960’s when art work came off the plinth. I attempted to touch it without relying on it so that the weight could be shifted. In the first attempt I used fishing wire to move the sculpture off the wall and then the plinth to demonstrate the movement and see the subject in 3 dimensions.
Perspex etched with the tear crystallisation and heated until it fell into a tear shape. To see the video visit https://youtu.be/JHohCSOtIJs
This was the first attempt at creating a shadow of the tear in movement. I am interested in the movement of the process and the shape of the tear with its outer tension holding its shape. This may form part of the final installation and as a video could be played or the action could be repeated through the perspex.
My work considers the significance of scientific imagery as metaphors for human existence. I draw from both the microscopic and scientific images in a micro to macro process of making. I believe this brings a subconscious connection through which we can communicate.
Scientists agree that everything is energy, and everything is connected. I feel this passionately in my work and indeed my life. In my work I am exploring the crystallisation of tears as a process that occurs beyond our sight but once demonstrated it forms a portal to communicate with the viewer on a subconscious level.
Ideas come from momentary human interactions such as the response to Voyagers iconic blue dot image which began my journey into the study of the human visceral response of crying and the crystallisation of tears. I have developed the memory of a rock climb into a sculpture and a tear into a tactile object that sits in the hand.
As a multidisciplinary artist my choice of medium is key to resolving the work. I develop subjects often through print processes to ultimately create sculpture. I use many different materials such as paper, metal, Perspex and resin, often pushing them to breaking point as I explore their connection with narrative further. The process becomes the art, it is not always aesthetically pleasing but it is a direct result of my practice. The end result morphing into a piece of work that I could not have envisaged at the start of the process.
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Babs Smith Multidisciplinary Artist 