Gender Kit - Over 20 Years In The Making

Yes, I know, 'over 20 years in the making' does make it sound much grander than it really is. Basically, I moulded and cast the genital sections for 'Gender Kit (Basic Model)' back in the 90s when I was an art student, with the intention of it being an accompanying piece to a much larger model kit sculpture that I'd made. But as is often the case, by the time I'd cast them my mind was already occupied with thoughts of other projects. So, from then until now the two pieces have just sat in a box and every year or so something would remind me of them and I'd think ' I must get round to finishing that piece someday'. Well, that day has finally arrived.

'Gender Kit (Basic Model)', 1998-2019, model kit-inspired sculpture by UK/British artist, Wayne Chisnall

As I mentioned in a previous post, the volunteers for the casting process involved in the construction of the two resin genital sections were myself and my then girlfriend and fellow art student; whose name, to help preserve her modesty, maybe I shouldn't mention over social media. However, what I will say is that when it did come to her part in the casting process there was an unfortunate, if not wholly unfunny, incident. It turned out that before applying the plaster of Paris (used to make the mould in which to cast the resin positive) we hadn't quite applied enough petroleum jelly (used to act as a release agent) to the pubic area in question. As such, once the cast had dried and we tried to remove it from her genital region we found that if had become firmly attached, having trapped quite a few pubic hairs in the process. Needless to say, it didn't help matters any that I then started to laugh; at which point I was ordered out of the room while the matter was angrily and painfully resolved. But I will say that the young lady was a bloody good sport for taking part.

The reason that I've attached '(Basic Model)' to the title of 'Gender Kit' is that I've been toying with the idea of making an elongated version of the piece that would include genital casts from the many graduations running along the female to male spectrum. Although, knowing how long it took me to get round to finishing this first one, and how hard it might prove in finding suitable volunteers for the casting process, I wouldn't hold my breath in waiting for the realisation of 'Gender Kit (Expanded Model)'.

'Gender Kit (Basic Model)', 1998-2019, model kit-inspired sculpture by UK/British artist, Wayne Chisnall

I'm not sure what prompted me to finish the work. Maybe it was someone commenting on my first model kit piece or maybe it's something to do with the whole issue of gender being more relevant now than ever before. Either way, I'd like to say a big thank you to a dear friend, Ian Fenton, for 3D printing the sprue/runner corner sections, T junctions and domed end pieces for me. This made the construction of the sculpture so much easier and vastly more stable than with my earlier model kit-inspired pieces. Which brings me round to the inspiration behind the work. As a child in the early 70s I was obsessed with horror movie characters, dinosaurs, super heroes and space ships, and would spend hours of fun and frustration building model kit versions of them. So I'd like to say a massive thank you to Airfix and the other model kit companies (and the modellers who created the original models which were then turned into kit form) for that element of my formative years.  

'And When I'm a Man, I'll Think As a Man', model kit-inspired sculpture by UK/British artist, Wayne Chisnall

The much larger model kit-inspired sculpture that 'Gender Kit' was initially intended to be an accompanying piece to is my 'And When I'm a Man, I'll Think As a Man' sculpture, which I also started (and managed to finish) during the second year of my BA Fine Art degree way back in the 90s. Incidentally the photo you see here of 'And When I'm a Man, I'll Think As a Man', which includes me for scale (I used to just show photographs of the work on its own but people would often presume that the sculpture was an actual model kit, about 8" across), not just vanity, was taken many years after I constructed the sculpture. It was shot by the photographer, Phil Sofer (thanks mate), in 2011 at the Scream gallery in Mayfair, London, where I was exhibiting a number of sculptures at the time.

Apologies that some of the text and one of the images in this post is lifted from my earlier 'Work In Progress' post, but it seemed relevant to include them here.