Wax

        

 

Wax is the product of the exploitation of the work of bees, and can be used for creating candles, (those pictured here are from the lecture / performance event last week) In the Neolithic it was used for sealing jars for the preservation of food, as a base for poultices, as a mould making material.

I use it as a liminal material, neither food nor excreta, neither solid nor liquid. It was found among the stones at Balfarg with the organic remains of Henbane, probably a remnant of pot-sealing. It is made to provide food storage and cells in which larvae may grow: a material of birth, not alive, nor a waste product.

Hair is equally intermediate, being neither alive nor dead. Because both are liminal materials I think they have a symbolic status that may resonate with participants in this event; their transitional state represents transformation.