Blog Archive

Saturday, April 23, 2016

"The Future of an Illusion"

"The Future of an Illusion" open






















Helen Malone and I have just finished our collaborative book "The Future of an Illusion". This book is about death and the processes our bodies go through as they decay and some belief systems that surround this often taboo aspect of our lives.
Helen has blogged in wonderful detail how we approached our collaboration and our thinking around this topic. She has also outlined some of our research and books we both read and how this has informed our book. Please visit her very informative site if you are interested in these aspects of our first tunnel book together..

Some early experiments with decaying the paper were not successful as they seriously compromised the structural strength of the paper. However, adding straw to the wet coloured paper allowed some of the paint to be absorbed into the straw and create an uneven colour which I think showed the early stages of decomposition.




unsuccessful decay effects

very unsuccessful decay effects



getting there with straw















trying leaves
















adding decay


dead end tunnel
Helen's outside tunnel

Jack"s outside tunnel

a look inside

close up inside

looking down inside

a side view























open box














closed with a skull

close up skull fastening














4 comments:

Amanda said...

Great photos Jack! This looks so good and your experiments with straw are very interesting. Seems this is a very fruitful collaboration that you and Helen have established.

Jacobus (Jack) Oudyn said...

Thanks Amanda. Yes a good collaboration seems to bring out the best in both of us.

Helen M said...

Seems I'm a bit late catching up with this blog post Jack. Great to see the book finished. Your photos of the experiments with decomposition are really interesting and I think you should perhaps take them further in the future.

Unknown said...

Yes, Helen I was a bit hasty in pulling out of those investigations and agree there could be richer pickings.