Sculpting the eyes of the monster has been the biggest challenge, so I saved that task for last. The eyes carry the expression and are the only crisp-edged, anatomically-specific feature of the sculpture, so they are where a viewer’s eyes would naturally be drawn. The monster’s eyes need to reinforce the gesture of the body while also conveying what the creature is ‘thinking’. I knew I wanted the eyes to express a kind of serenity or wisdom but with an underlying menace, evoking the quiet confidence of predators in the wild. I also knew that the City was concerned not to display a scary creature, so gave it a kind of smile that could be interpretted many ways.
The other challenge about the eyes was to not make them too naturalistic. I want the sculpture to have an iconic, abstract, generalized kind of appeal, without being expressive or trying to resemble something real. The trick has been to provide enough specific detail to render something with presence and plausibility, something that invites close scrutiny and satisfies repeated viewings but not so much detail that it feels like a fake or a show of mastery. I want people to see it as a constructed thing but still have it communicate the feeling of an encounter with a being.
Today we received approval from the City of Oakland to proceed with delivery to the foundry, where we will connect all parts and complete all surface shaping and texturing. It’s been an intense month getting the scupture ready, and we’ve devised many experimental techniques working with cork. After shaping and faring the surface, we skim-coated the raw cork with exterior joint compound to even out the voids and make a pigskin-like surface. We then burnt a surface pattern with wood-burning irons, filled the burnt grooves with a plaster slurry, then sanded and stained the entire surface a neutral grey to ‘pop’ the surface. I’m very grateful to my crew of plasterer/texturers, including Ene, Aili, Leo Turpan (our June intern) and my old friend Matt. Here is a little gallery of images documenting the process:
To read more about the development of Makkeweks, click here and scroll down.