'ad vitam aeternam'- Dina A

‘ad vitam aeternam’ is the result of my contemplation of the Classical sculptural tradition using the process of covering.

The video piece, a 13 minute process of forming a featureless anonymous portrait by covering a head with buttercream icing, is a direct response to the Baroque era busts of the likes of Charles I, Charles II and Cassandra Sirigatti at the V&A. It communicates with the commemorative tradition of the portrait bust, which is focused on capturing the likeness of the sitter, and the way in which this tradition fails as time erases likeness. The sitter himself is forgotten and the portrait becomes an example of portraiture. Much of my time was spent in the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Sculpture Galleries, where the two rows of busts formed a ‘walkway’ of portraiture examples rather than a celebration of the individual. In the same way my work is an anti-commemoration, as I create a generalised portrait.

The piece deconstructs the processes of this long-standing sculptural tradition. By using a deeply temporal material- buttercream icing- to cover, I echo the temporal properties of marble; a naturally heavy, brittle material that is liable to internal weakness and breakage, which I discovered during my research at the V&A. Thus the reason why such pieces survive is through careful preservation and restoration. Though a neo-classical tribute in aesthetic, my piece is even more temporal than marble; by the end of the covering process the icing starts to melt off the model’s face. In producing it in such a way I have understood the significance of the gallery or curator to prolong the life of the artwork by displaying it.

Though a video piece, displaying it as an object is important to me. I would ideally want to show two monitors on two tall plinths with the videos at different stages, perhaps positioned on two sides of the doorway, echoing the display of portrait busts in public places.

(Dina, Sculpture Pathway).