Monday 7 May 2007

Here's one I made earlier (5)


I am fascinated by the imperfect, in this case a body that isn’t perfect. The dress and trousers, the sculpture representing the figure, the little hunchbacked girl. The body is absent, seems to have slipped out of its cover, out of its frame. The sculpture a shell really, a hardened empty skin. Again a concern with difference and how it might be experienced, but also with the feeling of being different manifested in a physical way.
The sculpture is built up layer by layer, newsprint at its base giving a bit of solidity to hold up the layers of black tissue paper. The tint of the tissue paper fades with time and takes on a coppery glint, which makes the figure look heavy and substantial, as if cast in metal. Its lightness comes as a surprise. Making it was slow and tender work, the shape gradually growing towards its outer edges. Paper only (and glue), no other materials are used. The only solid thing here is the unexpected shape on the back, the extra, the different. Still this girl melts into her environment, comfortably so. She has a real presence. She doesn’t smack of difference, she just is.

2 comments:

MoonChild said...

if you don't tell, i will really think that it's made by heavy metal!~ i love paper works, paper is a wonderful and also magical source! And i love sculpture too, although i dont know how to make it and just know a few sculptors(Constantin Brancusi, jean arp, Jacques Lipchitz...) through the basic art history i hv taken last year~but i know i really enjoy their form of beauty, and the concept inside!
your sculpture just have both two!

Oh~when i talk about paper works, i think of me-jade, do you know her~ all her art are paper works too! it would be great if you know her!

Susan Kruse said...

The fact that it looks like bronze but is just paper, that it looks filled but is empty, that it looks ordinary and then reveals deeper readings invites much contemplation. Is this life size?