Life-cast
Sculptures

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• Process
• Rush Hour
  Images
• Statement
        -
• Neurotypical
  Sea
• Richel
  Process

Life-cast Sculptures

2010 to 2018

Process

Rush Hour

Rush Hour Statement

How would you describe the experience of using public transit? Suppose you were talking to someone who had never before travelled on the C-Train during rush hour? I would begin by trying to describe the alarming sensation of having your body crammed tightly into a suffocating space with dozens upon dozens of other bodies, many of them emitting strange and somewhat disturbing odours and noises. I would then try to describe the nauseating sensation as the train lurches forward, with fits and starts, swaying unpredictably toward its next bumpy stop.

I can think of no other experience that's quite as distressing as that of commuting on the C-Train during rush hour. The only event that might come close would be that of trying to stay afloat in an angry sea with rough waves that push and pull at you until you're tired and sore and ready to let go, allowing the waters to wash over you until sea and self merge and become one.

The public art space titled, OPEN SPACES: Window to a View is an ideal location for an art installation that speaks to the experience of taking public transit. I worked with sixty-five artists from Studio C for several months to create life-cast figure sculptures for this space. We made many plaster casts of our limbs and our faces and then attached them to armatures that resembled torsos at various stages of sinking into an imaginary aquatic medium. The end result was a dynamic installation of realistic human forms amidst an undulating surface that resembled roiling ocean waves. Finally, to metaphorically connect public transit to our depiction of individuals merging into an angry sea, we titled the artwork Rush Hour (also a nod to one of the fathers of lifecasting, George Segal).

Art can do many things. As a sculptor and a painter for over thirty years, I believe that one of the most powerful things that Art does is to make visible, through metaphor, the emotions and feelings of common human experiences. The artwork Rush Hour, installed at OPEN SPACES: Window to a View, provided commuters with a startling and magical representation of using public transit in the bustling young metropolis of Calgary. It was a privilege and a wonderful experience for me to have the opportunity to work with such a talented and committed group of artists. Thank you Studio C !

The Neurotypical Sea

Richel (process)