Padlock (from Ballet to Remember series) (J293)

Catalogue Record

Collection

Primary Collection

Maker

Maria Militsi

Title

Padlock (from Ballet to Remember series)

Made in

London

Date

2009-2010

Description

Brass ballet shoe-shaped pendant with gold ring, attached to a brass padlock with the latch removed.

Materials and techniques

Used objects (found on the street or sourced from ebay, second-hand shops and antique markets). Lost wax casting.

Dimensions

length: 7cm

width: 1cm

height: 7cm

Object number

J293

Maker's statement

Ballet-to-Remember', is a series of pendants moulded by a pair of dolls' shoes and fourteen overused and primarily discard objects. The collection is choreographed by a children's' book titled ballet-to-remember and was published in 1944; the book beautifully illustrates a young girl performing basics positions of ballet. Accordingly ballet feet emerge from broken damaged, violently compressed and lost items. These body parts complete and recover through delicate gestures that bring together the experience (old) with the innocent (new), the accidental with the intentional, and the mistaken with the precise. A display of a series of chosen pictures indicate to a link between the young dancer and the emerging pendants (ballet feet), as an attempt to establish a certain state of metamorphosis (transformation). The idea of using as a metaphor a physical action generated by the young dancer acts as a catalyst to unite the gestural with the realms of materiality. The collection signifies considering the way that is related to my practice as a independent body of work, yet linked to a visual language that is echoing throughout an overall perception towards making.