The Prosthetics (ocular prosthetics, blown glass)
The Prosthetics are three sculptures made of ocular prosthesis – glass eyes – that cluster together, looking out from the corners of the galleries architecture. Reminiscent of organic organisms, they draw reference from the Fates, the three sisters forced to share one eye between them. Suggestive of the surveillance that drives data analysis, they also point to the limited resources of a dwindling biosphere, but also to the collective approach necessary to face the challenges ahead regarding environmental change.
The eyes were blown by a glass blowing expert in human glass eyes, usually involved in the production of human ocular prosthetics for medical purposes, in Germany. I then worked with another glass expert in the UK to produce the intricate organic cluster effect. We spent four days cold-working the eyes with other blown glass spheres, at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, to produce the three organic clusters.
The work in The Underlying utilises live sentiment analysis of online news production and social media, relating to BPA’s (Bisphenol A*) to consider how surveillance, rather than a rogue element of capitalism, enmeshes with the effects of market forces upon the environment, happening at a molecular level.
