Surgical Instrument (from Ballet to Remember series) (J299)
Catalogue Record
Collection
Maker
Maria Militsi
Title
Surgical Instrument (from Ballet to Remember series)
Made in
London
Date
2009-2010
Description
Silver ballet shoe-shaped pendant with a gold ring, attachable to dark metal surgical tongs.
Materials and techniques
Materials: used objects (found on the street or sourced from ebay, second-hand shops and antique markets). Lost wax casting.
Dimensions
length: 21cm
width: 1.5cm
height: 2cm
Object number
J299
Category
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.