Delaney- Materialistic

2/19/2026

    I'm still a little bit undecided on what idea I want to go with, but I have two solid concepts that I'm happy with and excited about.

Idea Development

Idea #1

    My first idea was for my installation to be depicting a wake. I think wakes are an interesting thing- I think sitting there with the body of a loved one, really spending time with their body, is kind of a unique experience. I can't speak for everyone but I think spending time with the body really helps the grieving process, as you are confronted with the reality of the situation and must let the fact that they're gone sink in. For me, when I haven't gotten to spend time with the  body, I find myself struggling to come to terms with what happened in my mind. Like, logically, I know that person is dead- but because I haven't seen it, I feel like I almost forget that they're really gone, or have trouble wrapping my head around it. Whereas, when I have spent time with the body, I feel like my grieving process is more grounded in reality. It still sucks and is sad, but for me, it is a bit of an easier mourning process.

    Anyway, My idea for this piece is to have a sculpted-body laying in a bed. Their face is veiled, but you can still see the contours of the human face- vague nose shape, etc. My intention with this is to strip the individual of any set-identity so it can be interpreted as anyone. Then, by the bedside, I would have a small table and chair where a viewer can sit and spend time with the work. On the table, there would be an open notebook where the viewer is invited to, if they choose, write about their experiences with grieving or about a loved one. There would also be a vase with flowers where the viewer is allowed to take one and lay it over the body to sort of pay respects.

Idea #2

    My second idea is based  on a feeling from an experience I had a few years back. I'll be vague, but for context, I used to date somebody who was not very mentally stable and I had a lot of scary experiences with him as a result. For some reason, even though this was by no means the worst thing to happen, what stuck with me was this time when he was on top of me- I'm not very strong, but my fight or flight kicked in, and I bit his hair, pulling it out. This really haunted me- I felt guilty even though really, I know what happened wasn't without reason. But I found myself constantly feeling like I had hair in my mouth, even when I didn't. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of hair between my teeth. I was left with this lingering feeling of being gross or dirty.

    So, that's what this piece would be about. I depicted a girl wrapped in a cocoon of hair, with a shower drain beneath her that has hair coming out of it. I obviously can't find that much hair, so my idea  was to sculpt and paint some of it, but use brushed-out yarn for a large portion to get the effect of hair. Then, for smaller strands I would use some wig hair- I actually have a pretty long black wig that I'm not really attached to, so maybe I'd use that. I would like to sculpt some of the girl's body parts- mainly her face, an arm, and a bit of a knee, but I will be obscuring a lot of this with hair, so I'll probably only sculpt some parts to make it lightweight. I thought I would mostly use some foam, paper mache, and maybe some air-dry clay for certain features, all sealed with a few layers of mod podge to keep it together. To suspend this from the ceiling, I figured it would probably be most structurally sound to use some sort of cord that I can easily hide with the "hair". I'll try to make this pretty light-weight, but I will still have to be careful that it's structurally sound so it doesn't fall.

    I'm not set on either of these ideas yet. I really like both, so any input on which one I should go with and develop further would be appreciated!