Corporeal, 1998

For a while I tried to manifest the theme "woods" that I explored with drawings in various more or less "spatial" ways. I was interested in the moment of spatial balance - finding a new surrounding of forms with every step that one takes while walking through the woods. As well I was interested in the personal encounter that could be manifested by a work of art in a gallery that was translated directly from such an experience.

For a while I had tree-trunk-like shapes "growing" in the studios that I worked in - or hauled branches or fabricated poles inside, waiting for the idea to come. Today I think that, really, by letting this idea go, I probably found it in the piece that I call now "Corporeal". It is far less spectacular than I wanted my woods-piece to be and at the same time it is more substantial than the thought that I had before and worked around, which implied too direct references.

[Move cursor over slide show in order to pause it. Click on picture to enlarge]

plaster (yellow hydrocal), linen yarn; two pieces: 23” x12” x 91” (60 x 30 x 230 cm); 18” x 14” x 96” (45 x 36 x 245 cm)

"Corporeal" consists of two forms that are worked in plaster, a yellowish hydrocal. The surface of the pieces appears layered and woven. It reveals fibers that merge with the almost skin-like or wood-like plaster surface. The shapes are things in themselves (about 240cm long/high and between 30 and 60cm in diameter) that allow for various associations.
Like driftwood rather than wood, they allude to some natural material that has taken a form which vaguely reference the proportions of the human body. One element rests on the floor, the other leans against a pillar.
A comment that I wrote in connection to a group show that I participated in is as follows:
The smooth surface of the two forms is wrapped, worked and incised with fine linen yarn, thus layering up and tracing the nature of form of the objects. They are moveable, either resting on the floor or leaning against the wall, a post. The objects seem to be familiar, corporeal in their appearance, but in the same moment they obscure one's perception by obviously manifesting something strange and unknown. They enforce a questioning, investigating, change the atmosphere of an existing space by opposing the human body with sculptural objects of a similar and confrontational scale.