Balsa Wood

Standing Figure with Bird, wire and balsa wood, 86x20x19cm, 2012.
I am exhibiting this sculpture in the forthcoming Halesworth Arts Festival exhibition at The Cut (4th -28th October), along with some other sculptures constructed in the same materials and with the same method.  Namely, this involves fixing two aluminium rods to a base, bending them to the initial lines of a standing posture and then starting to draw in some planes with balsa wood strips, shaped to create movement across the form.  It's not as immediate as using card which I can bend into large sweeping shapes, creating a dynamic whole with a few simple elements.  But it has the advantage of being light and durable, and reflects the light beautifully across its fractured planes.

It is liberating drawing in space with these light, tough materials, so easy to shape after struggling against the heavy wetness of clay which strives always to sink back towards the earth from where it came.  The clay figures demand far greater commitment, as they must be coherent from within the core, suggesting an interior life which emanates outwards into every plain, every detail.  The quality of this inwardness is all, and that is what is so challenging - what is it one wants to say with this innerness, this subjectivity of mortal, vulnerable flesh inhabited by an imperfect consciousness?  No such problems with the balsa wood and wire constructions, thanks to the constructional nature of the materials, they fly free of resolution.  The making process itself, the will to propose, is their substance.