On its most basic level, "If Ghosts are Real I Don't Think They can Hurt Us" is an exercise in mold-making, repetition, and telling a story without telling it.
The installation creates a snapshot into a strange scenario from an unfamiliar world, giving the audience a glimpse into a scene with many questions but no answers. Though it is clear an act of violence has taken place, the reason for it, as well as the identity of these two figures and the purpose of the masks and their placement, is a mystery. Is the victim a fallen hero, or a slain foe? Is the figure hovering ominously above them the perpetrator, a scavenger, or an investigator? What value could these masks, nestled and broken within the figure's open stomach, have had to this person? How might that differ from the decorated mask upon the their face? What does the title say about these figures, or the world in which they live? The point of this installation is to give the viewer a collection of pieces with which they can create their own world and narrative. Since this scene is highly changeable, those narrative pieces are also capable of changing over time and across installations. I have my own story I have made from them, but telling it to you is not my intention with this work.
Apart from creating and rigging the figures from second-hand fabric, the major process of this work was creating a silicon mold out of a plastic carnival mask (thickened with clay) and casting 5 more of them out of reclaimed wax.
Front View
Top View - Full (Original Varient)
Close up 1 - Guts
Close up 2 - Guts
Close up 3 - Guts (Original Varient)
Close up 4 - Face
Close up 5 - Spectre's Hand
Side View - Spectre
Wax Casting Process 1
Wax Casting Process 2 (Complete)
