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Basalt base (poured lava) with attached cast urethane resin form hand-painted and airbrushed with acrylic polymer
To make Cycas revolutae bulbil, Keith Edmier developed new techniques for pouring molten lava in collaboration with Graphicstudio’s fabricators and University geologists. Basalt, the solid form of lava, was crushed, heated to the melting point, and poured around the form of a cycad plant, leaving a cavity with an impression of the cycad. A urethane resin cast of a cycad plant was hand painted and attached to the lava form. Edmier has been interested in making sculpture with molten rock from the earth’s core for several years. In Hawaii, he investigated the phenomenon of lava tree molds, created when molten lava engulfs a live, wet tree, leaving a negative cavity or impression. The cycad is an ancient plant that has survived with few changes for millions of years. Although there are male and female cycads, the plant can reproduce asexually, by generating pups of the same sex as the parent. His plant sculptures address aspects of sexuality — the male and female functions of reproduction, renewal and rebirth.
