Buddha head

This work symbolises the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan. These statues had faced each other for hundreds of years in a valley in Afghanistan until they were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. This act of destruction shattered not just the physical forms, but also the aura of awe and the timeless serenity engendered by these weathered figures. In this work I try to represent the enduring relationship between the two statues.

The heads are made from a latex mold made from a metal Cambodian Buddha head. The fact that the work is made from plaster resonates with the construction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, where plaster coated ropes were used to create the effect of draped robes. The objects have been painted with a sepia acrylic and varnished with a wood varnish.

As I am learning, there are many ways to create a mould. Using latex is one option, typically in brush on format. The approach is simple: find an object (without too much under cut), mount the object to a board using plasticine or modelling clay, and coat the lot with vaseline. Then apply layers of brush on latex, letting each layer dry between applications. After 4-5 layers, then decide whether to create a support using ‘mod rock’ (plaster coated bandages) or Chux. The choice comes down to whether your object needs a two part mould or whether a one part mould will suffice (ie, limited under cut). After the support is created (as the final ‘layer’) and dried, peel off the support and then peel off the latex. The plaster can then be poured into the latex mould (surrounded by the support) to recreate the original object.

Sounds fairly straightforward… however latex can easily split when being pulled from the object. On the other hand, it can pick up an amazing degree of fine detail, as the following images show.

1. Casting a Cambodian Buddha head

The photos show the process from the final state of the latex mould with the mod rock support layer, through to pulling off the latex (which split first time and needed to be redone), to the results of the plaster cast to the final coloured version. The head was stained with sepia acrylic, which was brushed back to create a distressed patina.