Ark Journal IV, Creative Cast
Cast models

‘Cast architectural models inhabit the fine line between art and architecture. Welcomed into homes as if they are sculptures, these once functional objects exist somewhere between inconclusiveness and completeness, and reach into our unconscious to provoke a multitude of interpretations. Does it have purpose? What does it represent? What is its scale? How was it made?
The enigma of cast objects, in particular scale models, has fascinated artists, craftsmen and collectors for centuries. Concrete or plaster casting has long been compared with archaeology or geology: Le Corbusier famously lined the formwork of his béton brut buildings with shells; Constantin Brâncuși, described the unconscious and archaeological dialogue between mould and cast.

To cast literally means to throw. To send something (forcefully) in a specified direction, but with an uncertain conclusion. The art of the craft lies more with designing what will not be there, than what will. It is the alchemical process of casting that transforms them from object to artefact.’ Exceprt from article in Ark Journal IV.

Justine Bell is contributing editor for Ark Journal. In Issue IV she wrote a piece on the creative process of casting plaster and concrete. 

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