Isolation Sculpture – Sculpting with Cement

4th November, 2020

As I posted earlier, I chose to experiment with using a form of cement clay to model the sculpture. For the base mix, a courser mix, I used leftover builders sand and PVA glue mixed with water lime. To this I added earth red powder pigment. My intention was to experiment with other pigment colours as the sculpture progressed. The progress was a bit stop start, partly because I was working on other artworks and because the June heatwave resulted in the cement going off far too quickly.

This form of practice based research is tricky yet rewarding, I have had to adapt as the work progresses but I will know better next time around. For example, it is important to create a ‘slurry mix’ between layers — this what builders use to aid bonding between layers. It is simply a wet mix that I brush on before continuing to model with the ‘clay’ mix. I have also discovered that I need to limit the layers, allowing time to dry, otherwise the ‘clay’ can slump.

My intention was to excavate and reveal some of the objects at a later stage. In addition, I planned to use tools to carve back and redefine form and smooth some areas to contrast the rough textures.