People

Body sculpture

The casting couch

Ken Clarke started his career with a traditional five year apprenticeship in architectural plastering in 1964 at Shepperton Studios. He now has a studio in Berkshire which is visited by a succession of models, couples and other people who want to have casts made of their bodies as a piece of sculpture or a memento that will last thousands of years.

He learnt to build cornices, columns and artefacts and valuable props. After a learning period of nine years, Ken explains what happens next. “Well, I bumped into a couple of guys called George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, they loved my work and I became a HOD (Head of Department) for them… When I came back to England I took on 70, 80 people for big companies like Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Disney, the lot.”

Despite involving all manner of plastics, resins, rubbers and advanced techniques in making all manner of unique constructions, costumes and props, Ken found the film world changing. With animatronics and the like making the traditional trades less frequent, Ken found himself moving more in the direction of modelling real bodies. “It’s something that hadn’t really been done before except for death masks, going back centuries.” After a spell at Tusssauds, Ken started a two year period of ‘R&D’ perfecting the materials. The recipe for the mix involves some materials ordinarily used by dentists, but in much larger quantities. As such it is safe for the very intimate work on which Ken focuses. After a brief setting period, a mould is made and after the plaster work is finished, the mould is destroyed so each work is unique.

Although Ken’s interest in lifecasting is artistic, the technology is used in a variety of ways for different purposes as he explains. “People have their backs moulded for racing cars, their feet moulded for special shoes. Here’s one: we’ve had enquiries from companies about pre-boob job casts for insurance reasons.”

“The experience of being lifecasted is incredible. Some people go bungee jumping, some climb mountains, some want to fly to the moon. There is a cost to it but this is a far better investment than buying a motor car... Just to see their faces when they pick it up is enough for me, it’s amazing.”

Ken’s wife Jenny has also started a sideline called Pewtiful Sculpture which takes lifecastings and makes pewter sculptures from them. Although some men do come forward, most of Ken’s work is of women.

“I work with females. Her personality comes through her skin, under there is a structure you can read… Why bodies? I was working with someone glamorous. It wasn’t Sigourney Weaver but it was someone beautiful. One of these lifecastings was sitting on the bench at Pinewood and there was this ray of light that came through and I noticed the beauty of plaster. It was translucent. I’d been working with plaster for 30 or 40 years and I realised the complication of architecture, which is angular. The body is supple and forgiving.”