The Complaisant

This is my first experimentation with using plaster, mod roc, and wire, to create a sculpture. This series of work is all about the physical portrayal of mental states and how we use body language to read and manipulate one another every day. By adding the ‘head’ I feel it takes away the physicality of the piece and makes it about the emotions you may see on their face, instead of analysing their body language. Yet the piece is still successful and portrays my work in the right way.

The title ‘Complaisant’ means the process of pleasing other people and accepting their actions with no argument or protest against it. The idea of being agreeable, likeable, obedient, cooperative, etc. This is important to my intentions around this project and how we feel the need to change ourselves from the feelings we truly have, into something worth observing and worth looking at for a longer period of time.

I have also used colour here to juxtapose against the purpose of the piece. The orange is lighthearted and joyful, whereas the meaning behind the posture is darker and mirrors the feeling of changing yourself to have less opinions makes you worth someone’s time. I am excited to push forward in this project and fine tune my techniques, figure out what works, what doesn’t work so much, what colours I feel portray certain emotions and fit well with the postures I have made, etc.