Models are cast not in sterile studios, but on a tidal flat at dawn. Liz guides them through breathwork and slow, submerged movements. Woodman’s team pours industrial-grade alginate and plaster directly onto skin slick with seawater. The resulting molds capture not just anatomy, but the imprint of a shiver, a held breath, a wave’s sudden slap.
Once dried, the casts are returned to the intertidal zone. Liz choreographs a ritual reclamation: kelp draped over a plaster torso, barnacles colonizing a cast hand, salt crystals blooming inside a hollow ribcage. Over weeks, the ocean etches each piece—softening edges, adding patina, choosing what remains. woodman casting x liz ocean
Together, they explore the tension between . The Experience The collaboration unfolds over three acts: Models are cast not in sterile studios, but
As Liz Ocean says: “We think we own our shape. The water knows we only borrow it.” The resulting molds capture not just anatomy, but
The final exhibition is half archive, half aquarium. Casts sit on water-filled plinths; video projections of Liz’s underwater movement play across their surfaces. Viewers walk barefoot on wet sand. A single live casting happens each evening—volunteers from the audience, held between Liz’s steady hands and Woodman’s quick-setting stone. Why It Matters Fashion and art casting have long favored the dry, the controlled, the reproducible. Terra Firma / Mare Viva celebrates the opposite: impermanence as beauty, erosion as intimacy, the body as a meeting point between land and sea.
In the collision of grit and grace, Woodman Casting —renowned for its unflinching, sculptural approach to the human form—joins forces with Liz Ocean , the visionary movement artist and water ritualist. The result is not a campaign, but a living artifact: “Terra Firma / Mare Viva.” The Concept Woodman Casting has always stripped away pretense, favoring honest textures, unretouched skin, and the quiet strength of everyday bodies. Liz Ocean, by contrast, exists in a state of perpetual flux—her performances submerged, suspended, and surrendered to tide pools, currents, and coastal light.