touch

The Florentine Boar's snout is rubbed for luck - Florence

Touch is something we often take for granted, it occurs everyday and yet there is little visible trace left of it in our lives. Touch can be tender, part of routine or for nuturing and consoling, how can touch be given a visualisation, remain seen and enhance the connection...

Some examples of the trace of touch that I've begun to notice is that of touch on a metal surface. Bronze sculptures dot our urban landscape and where accessible show bright blazing signs of connection between previous visitors and the sculpture. The continuously touched areas remain free of oxidisation leaving a shining polished surface highlighting where contact has been made and other metals may be dulled by the touch from the acids and oils in our skin.

When I was young I was facinated by the smoothness of protrutions on fallen trees and stumps where cattle had rubbed continuously to ease an itch. The thought of how many times the herd must hae used the scratching post to make the weathered wood so smooth assounded me and I cherished them as a connection between the herd, their environment and myself for discovering their small rituals.

As a meterials experimentation I would like to explore various metals and their properties concerning touch, oxidisation, patina and polishing. Metals that could be explored could include; bronze, silver, aluminium, copper and brass.