Fluidity

Penny Hardy’s awesome sculptures, conveying a strong sense of life and vitality, address the concept of fluidity so characteristic of present-day society.

‘Fluidity’, or ‘liquidity’, are fitting metaphors to understand the nature of our present times, of modernity, when nothing is stable, nothing can be taken for granted, nothing actually lasts long. This has been magnificently explained by Zygmunt Bauman, the famous sociologist, in his well-known work “Liquid Modernity”. The notions of solidity, stability and sturdiness so appreciated in times before ours have been replaced by the concepts of fluidity, liquidity, the capacity to quickly change and adapt to new and different conditions or environments.

Circles and Spirals

Sally Smith’s environmental art features delicate, ethereal sculptures illustrating the simple and fragile beauty of the natural world.

“Round, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning…” goes the song. This has set us thinking about the prevailing use of circles and spirals in art works included in what has been agreed to call Land Art, as is the case – among others – of Andy Goldsworthy, already featured in our blog. And, yet, we are suddenly struck by the fact that we find it quite natural. After all, Land Art deals with Nature and a mere glance around us reveals how far circles and spirals are basic elements in Nature.

Mystery and Drama

World-renowned Philip Jackson’s awe-inspiring sculptures never fail to move viewers with their aura of mystery, their sense of drama and their emphasis on form.

This time, for a change, we are featuring a well-known sculptor, whose work can be seen in many public places throughout London, as well as other towns. However, the aesthetics of his sculptures is so mesmerising and compelling that we have not resisted including him in our body of work, most commonly dedicated to less famous artists.

From Rusty Nails to Glorious Art

John Bisbee’s mesmerizing sculptures made with nails are pushing the limits of the current concepts of Art, while creating a mature body of work that magnetizes viewers with both its grace and strength.

Think about the triviality of nails. Consider the effect of time over these more than common tools. Imagine the transfiguration they undergo, according to the various shades that rust gradually gives them as it covers their surface, metamorphosing them into something apparently different. And yet, they remain mere nails.

Dripping Life

Regardt van der Meulen’s mesmerising steel sculptures posit questions about the strength and vulnerability of human life in modern society.

“A drop of water hollows a stone, not by force, but by continuously dripping” stated Ovid, the ancient Roman classical poet and author of “Metamorphoses” (43 BC – 17AD). In fact, this easily applies to life as it slowly flows and withers human life in its course, thus somehow acting like a process of metamorphosis upon human beings.

Cinderella's Glass Dress

Karen La Monte’s stunningly beautiful glass dress sculptures raise questions about the social and cultural role of clothing, while also introducing a ground-breaking chapter in the history of Sculpture.

Once upon a time, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, imagine that a talented artist with the gifts of a fairy decided to completely revolutionise Cinderella’s gala outfit and dress her in glass. Instead of – or even inspired by – her uncommonly beautiful glass slippers, this contemporary Fairy Godmother improved Perrault’s character’s attire by creating stunning figurative cast glass gowns fit for a queen which go beyond imagination and become literally breath-taking sculptures. And so a completely ground-breaking chapter was open in the history of Sculpture.

Burning Beauty

“Painting is so poetic, while sculpture is more logical and scientific and makes you worry about gravity”, stated Damien Hirst, controversial and famous British artist considered as one of the most prominent contemporary talents. And gravity, indeed, seems to be something Seon Ghi Bahk defies and overcomes in his deeply intriguing and fascinating sculptures.

Born in Seonsan, South Korea, in an area set amidst the scenery of imposing mountains and deep forests, Seon Ghi Bahk has revolutionised the field of sculpture by introducing charcoal as the main medium for his art works. This material, which is a by-product of wood in its essence, makes sense to him since it connects him to his origins, while also evoking the cycle of Nature, from generation to extinction.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Borrowed from Milan Kundera’s celebrated novel, the title for this text seems only too adequate to the work of Odani Motohiko we are featuring in this text. Interested in capturing “the concepts of movement and transformation, dynamism and speed in sculpture”, according to his own words, Motohiko’s art pieces strike viewers with their eerie and almost surreal appearance.

Working with a variety of media, we shall, however, concentrate exclusively on one of his lines of creation, which fits our choice of aesthetics to which we want to remain faithful. Addressing philosophical issues and sculpture concepts not easily grasped by the majority of viewers, let us then solely focus our attention on his lighter-than-air, stunning, imaginative works which leave viewers breathless with wonder.

In the Kingdom of OZ

Fact one: the artist we are featuring today goes under the name of Olga Ziemska. Fact two: literally, her name Olga means “of the Earth”. Fact three: she works within the area which is now commonly known as Land Art. Fact four: she works wonders and creates magic. You may now get ready to enter the Kingdom of OZ.

Trapped in Beauty

Susan Sontag, a Jewish American literary theorist, novelist, filmmaker and feminist activist once stated about photographs:  “All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”

Freezing moments is, in fact, very much what Seung Mo Park, a Korean artist based in Brooklyn, does with his stunning aluminium wire sculptures. His artwork is intimately linked to photography, since he actually starts his creations using a projected photograph and then slowly placing layer after layer of wire meshing by cutting and welding until the three dimensional sculptures of his subjects materialise to the fascination of viewers’ eyes.

Tempus fugit

“... Time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail", stated the Roman poet Virgil in his poem Georgics. Commonly found under the form of an inscription on clocks, it enhances our concerns about the fleetingness of time and the ravages thereby caused. This further evokes French author Marcel Proust´s work À la Recherche du Temps Perdu – “In Search of Lost Time” – whose theme is exactly the anguish and grief about time that has irretrievably gone.

Imagination at Work

Do you remember the transformers, those toys which made the wonders and delight of kids in the 80s and which could take various forms? Mainly, they looked like incredible futuristic robots which could, by skilful manipulation and the use of imagination, become highly sophisticated cars defying our wildest dreams.

Touching Wood

“In all things of Nature there is something of the marvellous”, said Aristotle and, yet, not everybody has the capacity and/or the sensibility to see that. We have to be grateful for the talent of artists who can help us rise above our limitations to actually see how much beauty there can be in materials we tend to simply ignore.

The Throne of Africa

Today again, and just as it happened with our previous posts on the Tree of Life, the Transforming Arms into Art Project or the Freedom sculpture, we bring you another art piece produced within the scope of a humanitarian project devised with a deep concern for social awareness and social justice. Its ultimate objective is that of encouraging a culture of peace in a country emerging from a sixteen-year long civil war. We are referring to the unique project “Transforming Arms into Art” developed in Mozambique. We, therefore, expect to touch your hearts and alert you to the global need for solidarity and against the destructiveness fuelled by illicit arms trade throughout the world.

Flowing, Floating, Fleeting...

“Life is energy: pure creative energy”, says celebrated author Julia Cameron. Nothing could better fit the powerful yet fluid and strongly sensual sculptures by Gil Bruvel, whose work impresses and intrigues viewers at first sight and makes them prisoners of its fascinating and inescapable appeal.