Divider (from Ballet to Remember series) (J301)

Catalogue Record

Collection

Maker

Maria Militsi

Title

Divider (from Ballet to Remember series)

Made in

London

Date

2009-2010

Description

Pair of compasses with a removable ballet shoe-shaped silver pendant with a gold ring.

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:  11cm
width:  2.5cm

Object number

J301

Category

  • Divider (from Ballet to Remember Series), Maria Militsi, 2009-2010, Crafts Council Collection: J301. Photo: Todd-White Art Photography.

  • Divider (from Ballet to Remember Series), Maria Militsi, 2009-2010, Crafts Council Collection: J301. Photo: Todd-White Art Photography.

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.