Non-verbal communication is my focus in exploring Being Human. I was inspired by the video ‘BLIND MAN, DEAF WOMAN’ from the 1930’s in the archives, which shows two women laughing and talking through sign language. As the film was silent there was no audible distractions meaning you were very aware of their emotions.
It made me think of the mouth. Their use as portal to verbalise information that is taken very literally as a recognizable expression. When a mouth is still and silent, body language speaks. I am looking deeper at the inside outside relationship of non-communication in mouths. Asking questions on what make us humans silent, unable to express through any forms of communications and what that looks like orally internally and externally.
Working with plaster and alginate allowed me to dive into these observations of capturing positive and negatives (Inside, outside) of the mouth. Seeing the limits and the fragility of the material meant I had to work alongside its boundaries. I was inspired by the approach of working by artist Ana Mendieta who worked a lot with nature in a non-dominated way with the human body, encouraging the viewer to look deeper.