Installation view from ‘Pleins Feux’ June & July 2021
ROOT
2021
English audio w French subs
Detail view of ‘7th’ (2020)
Silicon and Ivory dust on glass display
French and English Text by Tania Hautin-Trémolières
A question I often come back to in my practice is can the dead speak?
In my archival research, and with the great contribution and help of the Deep Water Historical Society, I came across a case of a piano key maker in 1940s Connecticut, USA – the epicenter of the since disbanded North American ivory market- who died of anthrax that was transferred via the elephant ivory he was cutting into piano keys. I have since been experimenting with carving and scrimshawing vegetable ivory (tagua nut) and celluloid from reclaimed piano keys from the 1800s. The invisible transfers of bacteria (and other accents) through animal material and the mimicry between the vegetable ivory, real ivory and celluloid/early commercial plastics interest me deeply.
7th, silicone, ivory powder, glass, 43 x 25 x 95 cm
7th is part of the ‘a heavy curved incisor’ project; a body of work that synthesizes my research on ivory and materials that mimic this contested material, and ultimately raising deeper questions concerning immortality, preservation and material history.
Combining several mold making and casting techniques, a 3D printed, 1:1 scale elephant molar was created, and a mold made from it. This negative mold was then cast with ivory powder and silicone. This ivory powder* was sourced from antiques bought at flea markets in France, which were then ground into a powder. I wanted to recreate this elephant molar as an attempt to understand and empathize with this animal body. Elephants shed molar teeth throughout their life, usually shedding and growing a total of 5 or 6 in their lifetime. When they produce no new molars it marks that death is near. This shared but vastly different bodily experience between humans and elephants of losing teeth fascinated me, as did the use of reclaimed ivory, which becomes abstracted and ambiguous as a powder.
Exhibition view of ‘a heavy curved incisor’ at Fondation Fiminco,
On the floor plan, in an intersecting diagram of three mouths, seven sculptures create a constellation of bodies and materials that serve as talisman-like objects. A video further contextualize these forms in a speculative narrative that blends that of an ivory cutters’, a dog and an elephant. This project was set in motion when coming across the strange case of Oliver J Carter, an ivory cutter who died of anthrax he contracted when cutting ivory into piano keys.
Images © Martin Argyroglo
Material experiments: Ivory, celluloid, resin, vegetal ivory (tagua nut) and human milk (baby) teeth
Studio & Process