Hanna Strömbom

Title: Accepting timeline

 

My idea is to make a sculpture out of candle wax where you will carve out three hands made from candles, place them on top of each other and slightly melt them together. They will still be seen as separate hands, but they are conjoined as one. This is to show how the past, present and future become one, fire representing life that melts them together.

 

1. Purchase three white church candles (approx 20cmx7cm. Can be found at B&M for £1.99/ per candle) Using a knife, a carving knife or a normal small kitchen knife, you will now carve three candles into the shape of three left hands. Images of a prototype has been enclosed. (The final size should be approximately 15cmx6.5cm) The most important thing is that all three hands will be the same size. If you’re unsure how to carve I would suggest to start by making the round candle into a flat shape and after that cut lines into the flat surface marking out the fingers.

 

1. When they are carved out you will place them on a piece of cardboard. Please make sure you find or make a really thick steady piece of cardboard as this will be the thing you carry the sculpture on. The size should be an A3 with the edges cut finely. The colour of the cardboard should be brown. The way you place the hands is instructed in picture nr 5. The fingers should all point in different directions. If the hands are difficult to balance on each other and the cardboard, cut parts off the underside of the hand until you can balance them. Because you will not see the underside anyway, cut until you feel it's steady. It's really important that it's steady!

 

1. Now you will melt them together. Please be careful as you will handle fire. Find a safe area, preferably outside on a surface made of concrete or rocks. Please have water on hand and don't wear long sleeved items. You will melt the hands when they are placed on the cardboard. Having them melted on the cardboard is important as the dripping wax must be caught on the cardboard. You will use a match or a lighter to melt them. Be careful with coming too close to the cardboard, you should not touch the cardboard with the fire! The hands should only be melted slightly so you can still clearly see the fingers and separate them as three hands, but the edges touching each other should be connected.

 

While you're melting the hands, you will record the process. A camera will be placed in the angle shown in image nr 5 and be left recording through the whole melting process. This is not a part of the artwork, but a documentation of how you're melting it.

 

After the hands are now slightly melted together, you are finished. The artwork you will present are the melted candle hands on the piece of cardboard. cardboard.