‘Kumi’ - by Stephanie Rubin - 2023

Dimensions: base - 24cm diameter  / height - 46cm

'Kumi' - by the artist.

"Kumi was modelled as part of a larger body of work – Tracing Thames Chronicles – an installation of nine London portraits with audio monologues. The installation has been shown in Barcelona, London and in part in Japan in early 2000.

I have recently re moulded ‘Kumi’ (the original moulds having been destroyed) as I decided to show her again ‘solo’. 

Kumi was the first portrait I did outside leaving college in 1998 and in a way I found my modelling language through working with her. She wore insanely coloured perspex glasses which in place of modelling into the portrait I echoed into her hair (glasses sometimes compromise the portrait). Kumi has an effortless androgynous elegance.

The head has been cast in acrylic composite and painted in ‘bole’ which I cooked up from rabbit skin glue mixed with earth pigments. Each layer has to be worked with wire wool to flatten blemishes and finally gives the piece a gentle satin sheen.

The base is in oak; a design inspired by a milliner’s base and stained black with a brass-engineered post to bring all the components together.

All of the craftsmen I go to are based in Rye and the surrounding areas."

Steph Rubin