We’ve made some more movements with regards to the work about small props within cinema and the value/symbolism they hold. The work will be reproductions (3D printed) of props connected by a sprue and runner system (similar to scale-model kits). There will be several sprues with specific props within each; they will either be related by concept or physicality. By reducing them to the same material they will become shadows of their original forms. The films these objects originate from are a stylized fantasy, constructed by airbrushing reality into a narrow and illusory ideal of perfection. Therefore, by rendering them in grayscale resin they’ve been stripped back to only communicating their narrative importance within the film. There’s a great quote which sums up part of our thinking “We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.” In Praise of Shadows, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
In terms of the different sprues, an example of a conceptual link would be small props which are all about the nature of reality; the totems in inception (the spinning top, chess piece, die, and poker chip), the small origami figures in Blade Runner (unicorn, chicken, matchstick man), the business cards in American Psycho. A physical link would be keys from films; The Mondoshawan Tomb Key (The Fifth Element), The Hatch Key (Lost), The Copper Bones Key (The Goonies), The Key to Erebor (The Hobbit), The Key to Dead Man’s Chest (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest), The Meerschaum Pipe (National Treasure), The Winged Keys (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), The Fleur De Lis Bank Key (The Da Vinci Code), and The Key to Zathura (Zathura).
