Anne-Mie Melis

Start Project - A Trace of Ourselves

National Museum Cardiff - autumn 2011

A trace of ourselves and our surrounding contemporary world.

During different sessions I worked with almost 300 children that visited the museum and the contemporary exhibition Place, Trace, Identity: Art since the 1960s. Together we responded to the work Small carving n5 from Barry Flanagan; the work Untitled from Rachel Whiteread and the work A section of my studio floor from Paul Brewer. We explored and worked with clay, casting and performance art.

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Casting using contemporary objects creating a future fossil-like object (close-ups).

Each child made a clay impression of the inside of their hand. This imprint was their personal individual trace of their visit to the museum and the exhibition. The pile of all the children's imprints was a striking work in itself.

Imagining shapes with the hand imprint clay pieces and performing these shapes.