Venom

Synthetic testosterone, otherwise known as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). AAS has been around since the 1930's, but since the 1970s body building has become big business thanks to Schwarzenegger's huge impact on the movie industry. This impact has brought us into a resurgence of gym memberships and a generation of lads looking for physical superiority.

 

This gym resurgence has of course seen a boost in the use of steroids. All to often I speak to people who have used, or are using steroids and have done little to no research about the drug.
Testosterone is a hormone which plays a key role in men's development of muscle mass, bone mass, aggression and sexual libido. AAS means that men can inject themselves with up to 50 times more testosterone a week. These incredibly high levels not only build muscles but create a huge surge of aggression and ironically kills sex drive. This aggression is commonly known as roid rage amongst people in the know.

 

I wanted to encapsulate the dangers of steroids and the severity of the drug, through a sculpture. Having recently looked at super heroes they were still fresh in my mind and so were super villains. One in particular stood out as the perfect representative to portray my message. Spiderman's evil counter-part Venom.

Venom is an evil black viscous oil which is able to surround bodies making them ultra aggressive and extremely strong and muscular. In the spiderman comic Venom is an extra terrestrial entity but as I see it has many of the same characteristics of anabolic steroids. A viscous oil that entraps people making them bigger, stronger and more aggressive.

 

 

My sketch's of venom...

Once I had decided upon making this bottom picture a 4D form I set about making.

 

 The model started off life as a really rough shape made out of scrunched up newspaper held together by masking tape.

The next stage was to cover the newspaper in clay and form a rough idea of the head and where the facial features would go.

After the initial stage of creating a base the long process of detailing. the toughest challenge was making the face convincingly look as though it was being suffocated against its will.

 

 

 

 

 This is the finished Venom bust. possibly one of my most rewarding pieces as I was unsure about whether I would be able to do the original idea justice. I decided to leave the syringe off the piece as the tongue being so fragile would be asking for a breakage.