Playing with shape-shifting: articulated sculptures
If I was starting making again, I would be tempted to make things that move, with mechanical parts, so that they can be re-arranged or move and change form like kinetic sculptures and automata. The process of moving, shape-shifting and re-settling fascinates. I have been attending modern dance classes, but music is the art form that really shifts and reinvents. I aim to create this effect in my work but nothing actually moves.
I made two ceramic purchases from artists who have managed to make moveable sculptures ( or articulated, for want of a better word) with clay; the most brittle of materials. I am completely smitten by both their work and the whole family derives much pleasure from the sculptures we have.
Cecile Kempernink makes interlocking rings, sometimes in graded colours, often graded in size and when they are handled, they make a pleasing sound and drape beautifully, always finding new ways to settle.
Ursula Commandeur makes large works in black and white from many parts tied together; their movement is stiffer so they need careful rearranging, and they appear animate and comical.
Cecile Kempernink
Ursula Commandeur
Cecile Kempernink
For my part, I have played with threading wires and cords through holes in very large porcelain beads to make tubes and sheets of beads to drape on other objects or move between sticks, mostly just for me to play with because they haven’t gone any further. Deborah Husk (photographer) and I enjoyed arranging this porcelain blanket over her chair for these pictures.
Circus Gallery invited me to exhibit the work as part of their exhibition on imagination and play. Also this year, they invited me to participate in this film: “Creativity and Ambiguity”