Artwork title : Eliad

Eliad - DATE In a constantly changing world full of obsolete ideals, French’s work Eliad reflects upon the fluidity of ones physical and psychological identity. French’s practice dwells aesthetically and conceptually in the threshold between control and lack of control. By capturing the face and upper body of Eliad - a transexual identifying as a man as well a woman - the artist attempts to grasp Eliad’s personhood. However, by using Jesmonite modules and crystals that grow directly onto a piece of sodium borate, the materials function as a metaphor for every persons ever changing identity. The impossibility of stabilising the used materials, illustrates the hopeless quest of denying progress, holding back personal growth or denying physical change. Just as a person grows and changes, so do the crystals, organically over weeks, creating formations of their own. External forces striving to contain the physical matter, will only result in a stronger, more complex sculpture, just as Eliad transforms into a more powerful, complex individual.