sculpture

Going from a premise whereby an object which has 'meaning' to an individual can inspire a sculpture. 

Keys became a recurring theme with many individuals.  Some, who had recently left home, saw keys as liberation. Others saw keys as a way to let themselves in to a place of sanctuary, or as a means to travel (car keys).  After a spell of drawing keys with keyings attached, I was reminded of how a pair of keys could look like a pair of legs and my Key Angel was produced.  This had some similarities to the work of the artist Claire Murray Adams.  Especially as I developed a strong rib cage on my sculpture.

Claire Murray Adams

The materials available to use would only be partially limited by those being available at the studio or easily obtained with respect to the four week deadline for exhibition.

My first Key Angel, made from cardboard, plastic carrier bags, tape and polystyrene.  This shows the keys as legs and the strong rib cage form.

Key Angel (35cm height)

The symmetry and the anatomical look of the above sculpture is somewhat reminiscent of the work of Cathy DE Monchaux (Britain 1960), being wall mounted and intricate but bordering on the grotesque.  It does lack the sexuality of her work although I strongly identify with her fascination with Saintly Relics, something I explored whilst visiting the Basillica of Saint Mark in Venice.

Various Saintly relics (or arm bones) including Saint George from the Treasury of Saint Mark's, Venice.

I was further inspired by the work of Petra Feriancova (Slovakia 1977) whose work, the seires, Intrigues of the Gods are Behind Everything.

These pieces, displayed at Frieze 2013, seemed to united my fascination with the anatomical, the gruesome and the otherworldly (cf religious relics).

Petra Feriancova The Cave  (installation plaster casts of elephant tusks) 2013

The materials I selected to begin working with were clay, metal, insulation foam and cable ties.

Knowing that a cage form, rather than Feriancova's 'Cave' in which the rib/tooth like projections were more similar to stalagmites or other natural phenomena, I found the suggestion of a cage being created out of human parts, using ribs and bones (strong and yet delicate) more striking and connected to my fascination with religious ideology.  The contents of the cage could therefore be more varied and a juxtaposition to the biological form I would imitate.

First the construction of the spine.

One variation was the use of clay and the other using a length of pipe insulation foam, divided by cable ties which had a strangely orthopedic appearance, especially with the excess lengths left in place, which suggested ribs before any further work had been undertaken.  

The next construction challenge was the addition of ribs.  Using clay, a plan of a rib cage was drawn out, and cut out, before being placed around an inflated support whilst it dried.

From this point, I began to see a delicacy in the work I was producing, having looked at the fragility of actual skeletons.  I found myself considering adding details of corsetry to the form and also the idea of incorporating fragile taxidermy into the piece.

The Fish

 

Glass ribs, glimpsed through crate handles, are seen in this sculpture by David Nuur

The fragility of the structure of a ribcage (or the internal structure of any soft-bodied creature) whilst regular and predictable, is fundamentally brittle and delicate and beautiful.

The ongoing rib cage sculpture...