My Sculptures // Self Portrait in papier-mâché // Hollow Face Illusion

One of my favorite experiments in sculpting was making a giant self portrait and including it in my installation.
It was made in clay and the size was pretty impressive (around half meter in height). I was probably influenced at that time by an amazing sculptor Ron Mueck. His poetics included realistic sculptures made in different scales.

It took me a long time to make it, but the bigger problem was trying to cast it in a way that it can be built inside a wall and seen from outside of the "room" and from the inside.

I asked my professors for some advice, and there were a lot of ideas, so I almost ended up casting it in polyester and painting it. But that would probably be technically too hard and too hazardous for a "third grader" on the academy.
At one point our janitor came to me and said that the best and simplest way to do this was coating it in papier-mâché. And he was completely right!

So i took some newspapers and glue and started splashing all over my face (ha! how many people can say that!? :D )

The trick is to be patient (!) and overlap a couple of layers over the form and really try to follow the dents. Of course it takes a lot of time, but the end result is suprisingly good.

The next part was getting all the clay out of the paper cast, which wasn't easy, it took me a whole day and I still managed to rip it a bit on the inside. But nothing really bad..

The reason why I wanted to make it hollow is to try and do "the hollow face" illusion. It's a technique where you make a shell of a face and light it from below. Since the whole face is negative, the light need to be also (we are used on a lighting that comes from above).

The idea was that my face "follows" you while you're walking inside the room that I designed. Quite spooky shit, i know :).
But it turned out great in the end :)

And the front part turned out perfectly. :)

and even today it's in whole and in shape even after numerous transports i did with it..
Awesome technique and an awesome experience.

Hope you enjoyed this!