I've begun to investigate the idea of creating memorial shadows of objects through 'petrification' using plaster. I remember going to the petrifying well at Mother Shipton's Cave in North Yorkshire as a child and finding it really spooky seeing these everyday pliable items cast as unusable, frozen immortalities. Minerals in the dripping water gradually build up on the hanging objects, encasing them in stone. The fact that they're ordinary objects which you expect to see in use and in human contact seems to draw attention to their stillness.
Go to Mother Shipton's Cave website...
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| The Petrifying Well at Knaresborough: The two lumps high in the rock face are hats left there in 1853. |
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First petrification attempts using plaster...
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| Petrified glove |
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| Petrified socks! |
