Snopus the Impossible

This work was my first ever sculpture. Our studio work assessment was on, creating an impossible sculpture. I got inspired by a sculpture displayed at the Dali Museum in Figueres by Evarist Vallès which is a Catalan painter. I also checked up on Rachel Harrison and Michael Kelly for more observation.

Being outdoors is a passion of mine, so i thought of nature and started observing around the campus, I saw how snails gather around during spring and thought of doing a sculpture in the form of a snail. I sketched it out, while sketching out i gave a little dripping effect like the snail was melting from inside and looked tough from the outside to create the impossible effect.

After sketching it out I made a little model from wax to see hoe would it stand like if I hang it. It helped me a lot to understand how to make the shell as I learned that the snail shell is not as simple as it looks like

I have done my drawings and modelling based on these shell models.

I started my sculpture using scrap papers and plaster. But the materials were thin in holding the whole piece together which happened to look like this before and after hanging it .

In the end it was a mess and I had to come out with an other idea. I talked with Wendy McLean, one of our tutors in the wood workshop, she gave me an idea of building an interior frame so I can build up on that frame. I made a sketch overnight on how should i use the wood pieces for the frame and went to the work shop for a couple of days to build the wooden inner frame.

I needed something for a filling so i thought of using insulating foam to create a blob like look. i paint it blue with spray paint and added reddish tentacle like limbs to bind two creatures in one. A snail and an octopus fitted in one body. I created a new vertebrate animal.

Close up on the sculpture materials: