I have always been fascinated by the mechanism of swallowing/peristalsis, how both soft and powerful it is (you can swallow even while upside down!), but also how visually weird it is. I thought it was particularly apt to illustrate my personal feelings around how religion has shaped me as a person, with its gentle but pressurizing forces. i then decided to create a physical manifestation of what that would look like.
*This interactive experience invites you to participate in a symbolic forced rite of passage. You offer a life orb to a flower-like structure that transforms the orb through pneumatic peristalsis.
This journey materializes the concept of fate and being shaped by unseen forces. It explores what it feels to be a cog in a system that molds and decides, beyond our control, what we need to be.*
To allude to religious concepts, I wanted to make the experience as intimate and shrine-like as possible. For the “mouth” that swallows, I didn’t want to use something obviously human-like. I felt very drawn to using a Rafflesia flower because it is visually unique & striking, but also has a hole-like mouth that feels very inviting.
Picture of a Rafflesia flower
I also thought its reputation for being smelly and parasitic made for very interesting juxtapositions to religion, which is conventionally considered “pure”.
The first thing I need to do was know if an external pneumatic channel would work.
I modelled a multi-part mold in this donut shape to see if I am able to simulate constriction with it.
Casting the enclosing layer
Melding both pieces together
The casting of the main body was relatively successful, but when I joined the two pieces together, I didn’t press the top part in well and there were some holes as a result.
I needed to restrain the donuts on the outside to ensure it expands only inwards. I found the 3D printed encasement worked perfectly.