Materials

This is the current state of my latest work in progress reclaimed metal sculpture. Forgot to measure it (again), but approx 1m high x 1.5m wide x 2m long (39″ x 59″ x 79″). Current working title: ‘Recumbent Figure in Cartesian Space’ or ‘Taking a Line For a Walk in 3 Dimensional Space. Doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, so any better suggestions gratefully received!

The caption from the original post is summarised below, but I’ve also realised that the piece is about inviting the viewer to help ‘complete’ the piece by analysing the ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ space in order to decide what is ‘figure’ and what is ‘ground’. I was tempted to use Captain Beefheart’s Zigzag Wanderer soundtrack again, but thought the workshop sounds might add authenticity and interest!

This piece is based on the well-known Paul Klee quote that ‘Drawing is taking a line for a walk. In this piece I’m trying to take the line for a walk in 3 dimensional Cartesian space (x, y and z axes) in order to evoke a reclining female figure and – hopefully – provide just enough clues for an observer to work out what it is. The intention is to suggest planes and volumes without actually using any so that the observer is invited to quite literally ‘fill in the gaps’. On circling the figure, the hope is that certain familiar shapes will offer themselves for recognition (playing with ideas of ‘schema and correction’ after E.H. Gombrich’s book, Art and Illusion) whilst other – previously recognised shapes – will ‘disappear’ as they are seen from different angles (playing with ideas of focus versus peripheral vision)