METAL CASTING - CHARLOTTE MORGAN

CASTING:14 is a double narrative of trauma and healing, an autobiographical exploration of living with chronic pain and depression. Fourteen pewter cast tools were placed upon two long exhibition plinths that have the ominous lure of an examination table. The objects themselves were originally clay tools regularly used in my practice that were then cast in pewter to resemble surgical tools, suggesting healing through art making. However, even with the healing intended with surgery, there's still a literal trauma to the body, sometimes pieces of the body are removed, scarred, the body is ultimately different; this piece seeks to represent that dichotomy and the tentative nature of healing generally.

The process of casting, carried out over several months, became one of alchemic ritual, a very physical process that activates the ill body ~ the cutting of the sand, hammering it down, the heating of the metal, and so it's repeated. It was deeply therapeutic and yet the process itself simultaneously undermines the healing implied within the work as the unpredictable nature of the casting process has rendered the tools form imperfect. They are no longer fit for purpose, and yet with the abrasion of the casting process removed, there is an elegance to the objects, each one a singular embodiment of hope and caution. The piece presents both the hope that one can have in the therapeutic benefits of art making but also illustrates the uncertainty in this and the ever-present threat of further trauma.