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Soap Babies

SOAP BABIES IMG_0182.jpg

Cast in soap these baby-shaped sculptures were envisaged to be first exhibited in the pathology labs in the exhibition Post Mortem at The Romalaire Institute in Ghent, Belgium. The main mould was made at Winchester School of Art with the help of technician Chris Carter. The umbilical cord was made at the Light Factory studio. Each soap weighs about 1.5 kgs and is nine inches from head to toe. The works were eventually rejected from the exhibition, considered to be too controversial in a space only a month earlier used for autopsies.

These works were made to reflect the complexity of tending for life; reflecting that in this act of tenderness, we might nurture something, but that we might also be diminishing something. So the paradox is in washing the soap baby we are inadvertently washing them away. The work also reflects the knowledge Andrew gained at the Center for Ageing in Newcastle, that even before we are born the build-up of oxidants in the cells may be the ultimate cause of our demise. 

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