State of Mind investigates anxiety and stability of the mind via objects vs photograms, invoking a response of curiosity from the viewer by creating an uncomfortable feeling specifically by the sculptures. The abstract head-sized glass-blown pieces combined with steel that gave it a structure to stand on its own were developed from incorporating wood and plastics. The path of creating photograms from the sculptures were based on my previous experiences with glass and photography. The blown glass was made with at least some transparency to leave the interesting impressions by the tools used when sculpting – allowing the photograms to work like an x-ray, portraying the inner workings of the sculptures with the use of the refracted light. The lines of light resemble fiery neural networks of the mind that have expanded over time and become distorted; in some areas it could be perceived as an entity that has become trapped and entangled within itself. Some photograms have been digitally edited so that the finer details can be appreciated at its optimum legibility, which in some cases has led to them being inverted for clarity. The photograms seize variegated transparency of glass as a way to capture the intricacies and complexities created through its properties and as a metaphor for the mind.

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Working with hot glass enabled me to work with a clear medium with a lot of control that retains the impact put onto it, reflecting how the mind is affected by external influences. The sculptures were created using a variety of tools, a rusty old hammer in particular with a vertical chisel head; enabled me to sculpt in a blunt fashion. This impacted differently compared to other tools such as a modern club hammer, symbolising an example of traditional/opiniated values placed on individuals based on the functionality of its time. The unorthodox technique of hammering the glass in a repeated process with reheating, as well as another of glassblowing onto structured steel rods with aluminium mesh and being struck while cooling down - both revealed the fragile and transparent properties of glass and its juxtaposed relationship with metal.

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Luciano Minguzzi’s “Figure within Barbed Wire” inspired the investigation due to the interesting texture and form of the rough bronze rods that had a sense of impalement to the central figure. This created an eeriness that reflected on concentration camp prisoners in the Second World War. The Research into Thing Theory (written by Bill Brown) coincides with this and grew an interest regarding the notion of monsters. As there is a factor of thingness that makes something a thing, with monsters it’s abnormalities created from anxiety.

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State of Mind incorporates Alfred Adler’s notions on teleology, which is reasoning a result based on purpose/goals and refutes the aetiology concept of cause and effect related to trauma by Sigmund Freud. The work addresses the mind’s self-damaging capability through the photograms’ chaotic reflection with a sense of growth, and the mixed-media pieces represent external influences on the mind.