History of the Vaccine
195 x 205 x 30 mm
Location. Seoul
Category. Ceramics
Materials. Clay, Glaze, Acrylic Paint
Never forget the sacrifices that came before the product, was the message about this product. Specifically, the project was inspired by the experiments that a vaccine goes through on mice in order for the product to be testable and open to human trial.
I was especially inspired by the ethical practices and human centric beliefs when humans speak about the animal kingdom. In this way, I wanted to provide a sign of thanks for the lost lives of mice who were lost in the pursuit of providing the medicine that have helped to create the best of safety and the worst of times for the human race.
Process
As someone who enjoyed doing dissection on frogs, I wanted to portray the sacrifices of the mice in our pursuit of higher health standards against the microbes. The visual of mice tested on was a scene that was shocking but familiar enough to not traumatize viewers.
Ceramic Process
1. The outlines of a test tube, beaker, and needle was laid out
2. Clay was gathered to form the shape of the rat spread out
3. The defining feature of a rat was fleshed out (eye, tail, mouth, nose)
4. The inside of rat was sculpted out to provide a dwelling where the guts would lie
5. The guts were individually made and placed into the stomach
Coloring Process
- Based on the real images of rat dissection, the innards and skin tone was made to resemble a real rat.