Mary is a radio journalist from Sheffield. I met her at an art market, where I was selling sculptures and she was interviewing the public. My stall was providing lots of reactions, ranging from "I wouldn't mind his body on my wall" to "it's disgusting and shouln't be allowed on the streets. Naked bodies are not the norm on the streets of Sheffield.
Mary came over to chat to me and revealed that she had a personal interest in body casting. She had just been diagnosed as having breast cancer, and was trying to come to grips with that fact. She only had a few weeks to go before having surgery to remove the lump, or maybe her whole breast.
So we arranged for Mary to come to Manchester, so that I could take a mould of her before the operation: her image would be captured for posterity. She would be able to decide what to do with the cast at a later date.
So Mary underwent surgery, having the lump removed along with her lymph nodes. She's undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which has made her pretty sick, but she is still with us.
She is coming to terms with her new life, and has decided to "go the whole hog" with her body moulding. So we are going to make at least three copies of her body, charting her progress through the illness. We are doing a "before", a "during" and an "after" version; that is before the surgery, during the treatment, and eventually after the treatment and any reconstructive surgery she has.
Here are some photos. Oh, I didn't mention that Mary (alias Flora) had once appeared in the Sun newspaper during a Student Union stunt.
