21Grams

21 GRAMS.

The idea of the soul having mass intrigued me and I wanted to see what this weight would look like in materials that have some significance in human culture.   I chose to make simple necklaces each using 21grams, in gold, silver and silk.  If I had the opportunity to do it again, I would include salt and clay.

1907, American physician, Duncan MacDougall, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, proposed that the soul had mass.  MacDougall set about proving his theory by weighing patients before and after death.  He chose 6 patients suffering from debilitating deceases,  giving no detail as to how this occurred or at what intervals the patients were weighed.    His results, were varied, but 21 grams became the accepted result and he took this to prove his hypothesis that the soul has mass.  However, his practices were considered fallible due to shaky methods and small sample size. scientists disregard his research into this field due to allegations of bias.

Dropped, History in the Breaking

Could it be that within the process of making an object many aspects of the making are embedded in it's being? These would be; the initial concept of the maker, choice of material, purpose of object, process by which it is made and environment of the maker; both historical and geographical. And most intriguingly, is the soul of the maker also captured in this process?  How much of this can be discerned by the viewer or user many years later?

As an applied artist, these thoughts have been with me in some form or another most of my thinking life, and were stirred more deeply by my experience with the archaeology I experienced through my participation in the CinBA project. Now, I want to conduct an experiment: an exploration by means of an artistic collaboration with a cinematographer, a potter, an archaeologist and a film maker.

The potter will make two bowls, one will be dropped and the shards given to an archeologist to reconstruct.  Both potter  and archeologist will vocalise their thoughts during each process and these recorded  digitally.  The potter's words will be transcribed on the inside at leather-hard stage.  The archaeologists thoughts in piecing together the bowl and  analysis of the maker, will be painted in oxide on the outside of the reconstructed bowl. The two, originally identical bowls will be displayed side by side, the one in its original condition with text running round the interior surface. The other, restoration marks clearly visible, with text painted around the outside surface.  

The film will show, in many layers, the entire process; it will be both an integral part of the process as well as an exploration of making and makers in our social psyche, shedding light on the complex process of creativity as well as the inner thoughts of both maker and re-constructor. In a wider sense we hope to question and challenge our culture's hierarchy of concept ever process in art.

DROPPED feedbackOct’19

Dropped, History in the Breaking…Fantastic, this film made the connection between making, creative thought, hisory and culture.  Placing craft as an integral part of the development of culture. Peter Gloyns 2018

I was prepared for the idea of creation …and of destruction, but your film added the dimension of  history and continuity which was rather life affirming!  Nikki Taylor 2016

One of the most impressive parts of Re-Making the Past is the project developed by vanNiftrik.  She has brought together the potter Jonathan Garratt, the archeologist Lorraine Mepham and the documentary filmmaker Zan Barberton in a project entitled ‘History in the Breaking’.  Garratt was commissioned to make a vessel that was engraved (by vanNiftrik) on the inside with the thoughts of the maker.  After the pot was made, it was smashed and then reconstructed by the archaeologist in the same way she would have done with an ancient piece of pottery.  Her thoughts were then written (by van Niftrik) on the outside.  The whole process was filmed — the film becoming an integral part of the whole project — with Garratt and Mepham discussing their thoughts throughout the process. 

Museums Journal July August Peter Mason 2015