I use traditional techniques and invented frameworks to explore strength and delicacy in sculpture. Time-honoured modes of making and display are gently disrupted: large maquettes are displayed as finished works; ephemeral cardboard and stainless steel are expensively gilded; small cast sculptures retain evidence of foundry processes.
I have a background in painting and create large geometric forms of intersecting planes. Each sculpture is formed from a single golden or silver ratio rectangle. Single sheets must be installed against existing features in a gallery or landscape; elements of freestanding works are created from horizontal or vertical cuts. At least one corner of all sculptures must be balanced ‘on point’ and crucially, all the material should be utilised - no off-cuts are permitted. The process does not determine the outcome. The choice of material, relationship between planes; how the elements are joined; site selection and orientation in space remains the discretion of the sculptor.
Cast iron and bronze mannequin heads, ladies killer-heels and other contemporary ephemera keep their cups, runners, sprues and feathered bleeds. Each casting creates a unique piece and the apparently imperfect sculpture has the playful aesthetic of the archaeological found object.
Performance works are re-workings of 1970’s practices: ping-pong tables are built in public spaces from Leytonstone to Lisbon; scratch-participatory choirs perform rock ballads, folk songs and national anthems at galleries and art festivals.
February 2011