Defining 'Non Place'

The final piece will comprise of the cast brain suspended in a void surrounded by words that I associate with defining what the theme 'non place' is, both in its physical and non physical form.

The cast will be bonded to a sheet of clear float glass with another sheet placed behind it.  This provides up to four planes on which I can display my words.  The sheets will be situated in the foreground of an infinity mirror so I've decided to incorporate the second sheet into the mirror's structure so the rear plane will be reserved for that.

Having chosen my words I listed them in MS Word and then worked the fonts to be reflective of the word, almost akin to onomatopoeia.

I had the lettering printed and cut onto vinyl with an additional copy where the wording was flipped to compensate for being applied to the reverse side of the glass  I then laid out the glass and the wording and marked the location of the cast brain.  This allowed me to rearrange the wording into a structure that I was content with.  Since each plane is 3mm apart, I positioned some of the words with overlaps to help create the sense of depth and movement.

Once the words were placed and the remaining glass areas covered with clear vinyl I then used hydrofluoric acid to etch out the lettering.  The acid is exceptionally dangerous to work with so a risk assessment has to be carried out for each piece being worked on and personal protective equipment is essential, e.g. suitable rubber gloves, full face respirator, rubber apron etc.

The etched lettering has captured some texture but has retained a transparent property, this would not have been achieved through sandblast etching.

I then applied a silver reflective vinyl onto the rear of the second pain which gave it a 'one-way mirror' property.  This is required to create the infinity mirror.

The next stage is to complete the cold working of the cast brain so that I can start to bring the different components together...