On arriving in St. Petersburg Niall and I were happy with the freezing temperatures. At least for this our second attempt at ice sculpture we were going to be working with it in the way it's meant to be. Our experience in Moscow didn't teach us much due to the warm weather and only having a short time to throw a sculpture together. Luckily now were had our tools sharpened, with help from some new Russian friends and were rearing to go.
A quick gander through my notebook provided another idea. It was an old sketch I had done during college for my second year. I don't know where it is now but my work in College had me thinking about how it was like to be before we are born.
Back in the C.o.l.l.e.g.e
My final Exhibition that year was a plaster fetus comfortable growing in a womb made from silicone. All around this central piece was the madness of the world with a metal cage of spikes pointing in towards the baby and a slide projector showing images of war and music provided by Metallica. It was all a bit crazy and interestingly something I can't blame on my drug use. Because there was none.
For me the work was about the idea that wouldn't it be wonderful sometimes to be able and return to that safe, cozy environment. I'm really not sure my installation read that way. I was young and still quite naive when it came to art.
We choose the image of the baby in the cage as our idea because it seemed iconic and also possible for two Amateur ice sculptors to achieve.
The Venice of the north
St. Petersburg is an incredible city with massive buildings intertwined with Canals. I can see why it was called the Venice of the north. Everything in this frozen metropalis was aw inspiring to me. I really love to visit Russia because it has the exact opposite of the western ways of doing things that i grew up with.The whole experience is like being in a David lynch movie.
The location of our ice project was at Peter and Pauls Fortress which is on a little island in the Neva river. We had a great view across to the Hermitage Museum, an art gallery which makes the Louvre look like a craft fair.
Unfortunately our sculpture was right next to a cannon which is fired each day at 12pm and scared the crap out of us especially if we were using a dangerous tool at the time.
A chip off the old block
Working with ice was interesting, it is hard to describe the way it cuts because it changes so much based on the temperature. Very cold it is like limestone when it is warm it's like margarine I'm glad now that I experience both on my first and second attempts at the stuff.
For this project it was around -10 centipede so the ice cut like wood and since I had lot's of experience working with that I used the same approach. We both first created the central pillar together. It helped to have two to lift the blocks into place and fuse them together with water squirted from a plastic bottle with a hole in the top.
Next we each took an element to do, Niall made the baby while i made the cube and spikes. Then the whole thing could be assembled. One holding and the other squirting water.
Although it was not the most impressive sculpture on display and also apologies for the bad photos, we were quite proud of our work and felt we were in some ways getting the hang of working with this new and exciting material.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use Steemit to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Market Analysis using digital elevation maps
My introduction to Ice Sculpture - ice sculpture
Fixing a Dell SK-8135 keyboard
I hope you'll join me again soon.
@ammonite