SlipHunger

The divine Miss Kate, of the synchronous path, my alpha, my confidante and raconteur, enlisted me in 2003 to photograph this piece called SlipHunger. It was the final project for a ceramics class, oddly enough. It was supremely interdisciplinary, incorporating installation and performance art, as well as the photographs that documented it. I loved the piece, and loved being a part of it.

The piece involved she and her three groupmates sculpting an enormous clay vessel. They then installed the vessel at the edge of the woods near a clearing, and Trent got inside.



The other three members then filled the vessel with three colors of slip. Slip is a slurry of clay and water that is used in sculpting in clay and creating ceramic pieces. It feels silky and divine and utterly sexy to the touch. Once Trent was sealed up in the slip, they covered the vessel.



The groupmates had also created small vessels full of slip, as I recall, like little eggs. They assembled those near the large vessel, and invited the audience outside to smash the eggs. Then, Trent smashed through his egg-vessel. The slip on his skin was gorgeous, and that was what my eye was drawn to. I also loved the ideas of creation and destruction and decadence, of immersing yourself in the materials and media and wearing your art on your skin.



And a sweet pretty boy's skin at that.