#My current sculptural practice
Remains deeply engaged with the notion of repetition, though it has evolved from conceptual reflections into more physical, procedural investigations.
Before beginning work on the concrete human forms, I returned to the unconscious as a site of repetition. I recorded a series of idle, absent-minded doodles—automatic responses during moments of distraction. These visual habits, formed without intention, became raw material. I later attempted to reconstruct that same state of ‘mental drift’ by meticulously drawing repeated lines on a large 84 x 61 cm newspaper sheet, aiming to fill it entirely. The act was exhaustive. After nearly four hours of focused line-making, only a quarter of the page was filled. The futility of the process amplified my sense of despair toward repetition as a self-contained subject. It became clear that repetition, when stripped of context or transformation, offers no catharsis—only exhaustion.
absent-minded doodles
Untitled
April, 2025
Newsprint Paper
84cm x 60cm
Alongside these experiments, I returned briefly to the hammer motif from Unit 1. I vacuum-sealed several of the hammer sculptures in clear plastic shells, giving them the sterile presence of mass-produced commodities. One was flocked in red fibers, its fuzzy surface both playful and absurd, muting its imagined weight and purpose. Another piece involved coating a sledgehammer head in white acrylic and repeatedly inscribing the word “HAMMER” in black across its surface. I’m unsure what this object signifies exactly—perhaps a hollow declaration of identity, or a parody of linguistic insistence. The word becomes image, then noise.
Paster hammers "documented" in plastic
30cm x 30cm
Hammers on the hammer
sledge hammer head, acrylic
3cm x 8cm
Currently and Most Importantly,
I am prototyping human figures in plasticine, developing silicone molds, and experimenting with modular arrangements. These figures are intentionally simplified and uniform, echoing the previous concern with repetition, but now reconfigured toward collective tension and architectural structure.
Prototype of Faceless human figures
Plasticine and metal structures
approximately 18 cm each
During the mold-making process, I encountered unexpected challenges caused by the excess of bodily detail in the prototypes. Areas such as the armpits, neck, and inner elbows—as well as the creases formed by bent limbs—created deep recesses that made demolding difficult or even impossible without damage. In response, I began to smooth over these intricate areas, filling in gaps and erasing folds to simplify the overall form.This pragmatic decision, made for the sake of production, unexpectedly shifted the visual character of the sculpture. With the loss of anatomical detail, the figures began to resemble structural units rather than individual bodies. Limbs once posed expressively now read as horizontal or vertical supports—like beams or pillars embedded in architecture. The collective massing of these simplified forms gained a new, abstracted physicality, one that echoed load-bearing structures rather than organic beings. I was surprised—and genuinely excited—by this evolution. The figures lost their humanity, but in doing so, they acquired a sense of function, rhythm, and architectural clarity.
Molding process
When experimented with plaster casting as a preliminary test before moving on to cement. One of the most unexpected and rewarding discoveries in this process was the appearance of rough seam lines left by the mold. These parting lines, often considered imperfections, introduced a new layer of meaning to the work. They emphasized the status of the figure as a replica—an object of duplication rather than individuality.Far from being a flaw, the seam lines visually reinforced the tension between the body as a human form and as a manufactured unit. They flattened identity and suggested standardization, aligning with my ongoing interest in repetition, labor, and depersonalization. If the structural issues caused by these seams can be resolved in the final cement casting—especially in terms of fitting and assembly—I fully intend to preserve them as part of the finished sculpture.
The mold line
Eventually
I began to play with the figures—stacking them, arranging them in various orientations, experimenting with different compositions. This process was intuitive and open-ended, driven more by physical interaction than by fixed planning. Through these arrangements, I explored how order, disorder, balance, and collapse could emerge from repetition—not just as visual outcomes, but as structural and emotional states.
Untitled #1
Plaster
16cm x 15cm x 3cm
Untitled #2
Plaster
5cm x 23cm x 5cm
Untitled #3
Plaster
47cm x 3cm x 4cm
Untitled #4
Plaster
5cm x 3cm x 33cm
