Metal Fest: Psyche II

You are invited to special performance of Psyche II | Saturday 5th October 5-9pm

This festival is the third iteration of NSF's Material Laboratory Programme; an annual programmatic strand that focuses on specific material researches and medium specific practices through an intensified series of masterclasses, workshops, lectures and discussions with experts in the field.

This festival includes a bronze casting workshop; two iron-casting live performances and a series of talks and presentations. It’s a brilliant opportunity to learn, exchange and upskill your material understanding and practice development.

Psyche II is the centrepiece of Metal Fest, taking place on the Factory floor at a large, iron casting furnace where you can witness the casting process, 1500 degree molten iron. This carefully choreographed event is a combination of performance, art and sculptural installation creates a multi-sensory experience that will marry the industrial and alchemic production of cast iron with the nuances of artistic endeavour, creating a captivating narrative of this cosmic material, and its inter-relationship to the fundamentality of all things.

Visitors are welcome to view iron pouring on the factory floor from 5pm onwards, performances by Michał Staszczak and James L Hayes will be between 5 and 8pm.

About Psyche II

This durational performance work responds to the recent NASA investigations and tracking of a large iron and nickel asteroid, known as 16 Psyche. Located in an asteroid belt in our near solar orbit between Mars and Jupiter. NASA have recently launched a mission and probe, estimated to arrive at the asteroid in 2029. This mission explore the asteroid’s unique metallic composition.

This new sculptural artwork by James L Hayes, a homage to the asteroid, will be create during the live performance iron-casting pour. As a performance Psyche II is conceived to expose our inextricable interconnectedness to the most fundamental of elements, Iron, and how it plays such and important role in our human and planetary lives.

Host or Publisher National Sculpture Factory