This piece of work is a homage to the painter Frida Kahlo, who was in a horrific trolley bus accident when she was 18 years old.
Her spine was seriously injured when the handrail of the bus seared through her body. She was in constant pain, and obliged to wear plaster cast corsets for the rest of her life.
This bodice sculpture was modelled on my own torso using plaster bandage. I wanted it to look like a bodice, so included eyelets and lacing, the ends of which are red, with beads, to denote drops of blood and suffering.
Frida regularly painted her corset casts, decorating them with birds and animals, flowers and scraps of fabric, but I preferred to leave this one plain, in order to look at it and imagine what she was thinking, and might have painted onto it as she lay in her hospital bed.
Her life's work is a tribute to her strength of character, as she continued to paint despite all the odds against her.