Cynthia Plaster Caster, artist who made penis casts of Jimi Hendrix, Jello Biafra and more, has died
nme.comJimi Hendrix, Buzzcocks’ Pete Shelley, and Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra.Born in Chicago in 1947, she attended art school in the 60s, where she was asked to create a plaster cast of “something solid that could retain its shape.” Instead of going for something typical, Albritton decided to turn her attention to the frontmen of her favourite bands.Jimi Hendrix was her first famous subject, having agreed to being cast while on tour in Chicago in 1968.
Hendrix was followed by two members of MC5: Wayne Kramer, and drummer Dennis Thompson, though Kramer’s penis cast didn’t go to plan.“He got the container that wasn’t designed to mix alginates in,” she said in an interview with The Chicago Reader in 2002. “And if you mix it the wrong way it sets prematurely.
It set before he could push his dick all the way into the mold–only the head got in.”She continued: “Wayne is perfectly aware of what he’s got.
He doesn’t have to prove anything to the world.”Though she never had him as a subject, Gene Simmons wrote a song called ‘Plaster Caster’ for KISS‘ 1977 album ‘Love Gun’, which included the lyrics: “The plaster’s gettin’ harder and my love is perfection / A token of my love for her collection.”Albritton befriended Frank Zappa and then moved to Los Angeles, and though he supported her craft, he declined to participate in the art.
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