Gelatine bioplastic is an interesting material because of its biodegradability and organic make-up. Gelatine is bodily, it is made from pig collagen sourced from skin, bone and connective tissue.
Gelatine Bioplastic is transparent, ephemeral and malleable, and easily made in a home kitchen. It has a ghostly quality, that can physically embody something that is missing, barely there.
Bioplastic is biodegradable and slowly breaks down (just as bodies do) becoming part of the surroundings.
Evaporation also has ghostly qualities; moisture is held in the air as it evaporates but remains unseen. References to the ‘unseen’ act as a metaphor for the unseen in society, the lonely, the homeless or outsiders that many unidentified people inevitably were.
Clothing and shoes directly and indirectly represent both people’s bodies and their identities. We choose what to wear each day, to both fit in or stand out. These are conscious decisions that define us and determine how we are perceived to others.
Items of clothing are also used to help with the identification of an individual and are listed within the entries on the missing persons database. Clothes are often kept after the death of a loved one, clothes and shoes are vessels or containers, acting as reliquaries that remind us who they belonged to.
Shoes particularly embody the idea of transience or movement from one place to another, from one city to another, from life to afterlife, from existence to no longer existing. The saying ‘If the shoe fits’ refers to something being the truth about someone and of course Cinderella was identified because of a shoe!
