Charmed Earth - Individual Works: Part 3
Night Painter and Illuminated Hat
I remembered the night painter image in these two sculptures, Night Painter and Illuminated Hat, from descriptions of Goya and the candles he fixed to his hat. The brush echoes the form of the lit candles, so that he may illuminate a world inside his art.
Arcadian Brim
These works depict a lavish garden that sprouts from the top of a hat; they may be considered as simple expressions of the same ideas present within Hungry Spirits and other earlier work. An entire jungle sprouts beyond the knowing of the head below. The hat has a magical function in separating one plane of existence from another.
The majority of the form of Arcadian Brim (above) was cast in one piece, including the trumpeter who sits on top.
Only the plants were connected after. It was important for me to have the bulk of the object as one complete form, so that it seemed a solid growth of interconnected parts.
In Lofty Garden (lower left), the detail includes a bird tending to her offspring. Private Paradise (lower right) features small animals wandering the undergrowth of a hat.
Eyrie, Hatchery and Man with Mushrooms are some of many works that begin with the basic form of the head.
Woebegone (below left) is cast in bronze. Believer and No-thing are polyurethane.
Reclaimed Land
In Reclaimed Land (right), the frog clambers on top of the human, victorious in its pursuit of higher ground.
This group of works is connected thematically to paintings I produced within the series From the Underturned Stone.
The amphibious creatures have perhaps emerged from below the depths of the consciousness of the heads.
These sculptures were cast in a single mould and coloured polyurethane was poured into separate elements.
This was particularly tricky to achieve in Reclaimed Land, which incorporates a range of coloured polyurethanes within the mould. Each colour was allowed to set separately before pouring another.
The creature in Sitting on Top of the World (below left) is in fact a portrait of an axolotl that peered out at me from within a gloomy tank in a pet shop. It appeared to have human lips. Victory over Evolution incorporates both transparent and opaque polyurethane in a single mould.
Harbinger
Harbinger, the larger bust form (below left), was made from black resin, which I polished to resemble a river stone. There is a small spirit perched on the shoulder of this form, whispering in its ear. Liaison shows a comforting relationship with an imaginary friend; it was made from two moulds.
Antennae, Walking On High, Noble Beast
The horns sprouting from the head in Antennae are cast from paintbrushes. The antlers of the beasts are phosphorescent. All three works relate to earlier imagery, particularly that presented in Heads and Horns.
Rise He Up
Rise He Up (below left) relates to imagery displayed within Deliverance. Calling Me Up (below middle) shows a spirit summoning the person from which it emanates. Monument to A Downfall (below right) was made in one piece and carved back into after casting. Polyurethane was then reapplied to create a cohesive surface.
Liege
The two sculptures below were cast from single moulds, without joins. In Liege (lower left), steps grow up from an obedient figure, as if they are formed from his conscience into an 'upper-class' version of himself. Ascension (lower right) shows the achievement of a proud climber, yet reveals the physical limitations of that ascent.
Charon
Again, these sculptures are solid objects, without joins. In Charon, the boatman looks into the abyss.
Shadow of a Doubt shows the body of the soul, unsure of itself.
My Burden Be
These figures suffer the weight of the material world and the heavens above it. In both works, My Burden Be I and My Burden Be II, the figure and the aeroplane were cast as one object, with the clouds cast separately. The second version, on the right, is in bronze. The clouds screw onto the aeroplane.
Gone
Both the works below are bronze. In Gone (below left), the owner of the shoes has departed up or down the hill, I cannot decide. Nobody (below right) shows a shirt as a ghostly presence hanging limp on the line, like the space where someone was.
Mothers Group
These figures are cast in either bronze or polyurethane. The following titles relate to works as they are displayed left to right: In Safe Hands, Nurse Maiden, Baby Sitter II, Baby Sitter I, Thumbs Up, Mother with Too Many Children.
Return to Works
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