Abstract/Summary

Moulding and casting are widely used techniques of modern and contemporary art making. Their use and application can be found beyond the disciplinary art canon, in areas not immediately associated with art practices, and in times before casting became an acceptable form of sculptural production in its own right. Plaster as material remains the same, inherent properties and qualities don’t change. Moulding and casting are ancient techniques of giving and taking form and shape to objects and sculptures, and they continue to do so. And yet the way casts are symbolised, the way meaning and values are attributed to these works cast in plaster, has often shifted and continuous to undergo many changes: Is it the whiteness of plaster that allows these sculptures to become humble, a material humility that accepts and submits to different interpretations, and mirrors values, expectations and application associated with them? Or is it the way they are made, the technical procedures, the seemingly sequential or operational chain which appears to delineated a network of contact and touch, the same material giving and taking form, rubbing against itself? This international research and exhibition project repositions the significance of the techniques and materials involved in plaster moulding and casting for the practice of contemporary sculpture. The UK has a very rich history of workshops producing plaster moulds and cast, but no currently active workshops or collections focusing on the moulds necessary to produce the cast, unlike very active counterparts across Europe. This project aims to bridge this gap and reintroduces to a UK audience of practitioners, conservators and historians the vast material and technical knowledge and understanding of Les Ateliers d’Art de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, France; and L'atelier de moulage des Musée du Cinquantenaire, Belgium, and the Gipsformerei, Germany. This two-year, interdisciplinary project, is realised through a new partnership between Wysing Arts Centre and the University of Cambridge, funded by the Henry Moore Foundation, the Elephant Trust, the Arts Council England and the Paul Melon Centre for the Studies of British Art.