Strength in Simplicity

Simplicity in art brings with it an immense strength, and the more powerful the subject matter of that art, the more overwhelming it becomes in its simplest form....

(photo - Donald Kinney)

 Here is a sculpture by George Segal -  Holocaust Memorial at California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco.

The holocaust subject matter deserves the utmost respect, and needs little further comment, what is striking is the way all the emotions are so intensely conveyed by such a simple piece.

Search

This piece portrays the difficulties of finding true love, the endless, often fruitless search for the one that unlocks the heart. The keys depict the relationships that did not fulfil, the people that did not bring the love desired...and as the heart continues the search, and life goes by, the heart remains empty, un-fulfilled, lonely in a crowd...

The centre piece is made from a solid billet of steel, sculpted by hand to shape the heart, and hammered over its entire surface to give the warm, evocative surface finish. The key escutcheon is pewter, riveted in place over the key hole.The keys themselves come from many months of collecting, and waiting for the elements to age them.

The End

The 3rd piece (earlier pieces being "Unrequited" and "Lost" ) in a long term series exploring the concept of  love.

Love is often portrayed as the ultimate pleasure, a thing to strive for and cherish, yet in reality, it has a darkness and with that darkness come morose and sometimes threatening emotions as life plays out around it.

This piece depicts the shattering effect of the end, of the loved one walking away, the confirmation that the love is gone, and the devastating effect that has - the heart has lost all life, all the energy has gone - it is dust, it is dead.

The piece is constructed of a heart shape cut from a wood, which was then burnt in a fire and carefully laid on the background for capture - keeping the heart in one piece and preventing pieces blowing away was quite a challenge, although ironically, this too exactly reflects another aspect of what the piece is portraying.


Further pieces to follow explore the emotions of love further, with two more sculptures (in my more ususal medium of steel) due in the next few weeks - look out for them on the web site at www.haich.co.uk

Nature in chains

Found today on a beach in North Wales, here's some debris that struck me.

It's a piece of chain from the remnants of a 19^th century mining operation that has spent much of its life in the jaws of the Irish Sea.

As is often the case, the forces of nature have turned something quite mundane into something quite beautiful, somehow adding to it rich colour renders and wonderful textures.

The chain is now tightly wrapped and tied around itself, in one solid lump.

More poigniant perhaps is chains are almost a contronym, they are loose, flexible devices, perfectly free in movement, yet in history have been often used to confine, constrain and imprison – ironic then that nature in this instance has had the ability to combine both elements into this one beautiful piece.

Perfect Imperfection

This piece leads on from an earlier blog focusing on the beauty of imperfection, and explores our opinion as a race that any blemish is unpleasant and displeasing, and spoils a perfect surface, especially true in context with the human body.

The base is manufactured from molten iron, complete with inclusions, impurities and gas holes. The “imperfection” itself is a smooth shiny stainless steel ball bearing.

I have aimed to portray that both the base of the piece and the focal point of the piece to be the exact opposite of what we would normally expect them to be – the “skin” is old, corroded and damaged, the “blemish” conversely is perfect.

This latest sculpture is one I have been aiming to create for some time, but until recently, the raw material has proved somewhat elusive, despite many beach combing excursions and trawls through scrap yards. However, found quite by accident on a hill side in North Wales the base is a piece of melted cast iron – according to the local land owner, it is the residue of a significant fire some 50 years ago.

Art becomes art

Here is an advert by ArmaLite Inc (a hand gun manufacturer from the USA) that has been doing the rounds, creating mostly fury as it does so.
It pictures a AR50A1 bolt action long range rifle on a museum wall, sandwiched between the American Gothic and the Mona Lisa.
The gun is advertised as 

"..Designed to be an economical answer for the challenges of long range shooting.."

...so killing people from far away very cheaply - clearly what the world needs.

And yet there it sits, in the presence of arguably two of the greatest pieces of art.

The advert has sparked criticism, especially from Italian culture minister, Dario Franceschini - whether rightly or wrongly (being opinionated on a public blog such as this is perhaps ill advised, so I shall refrain from commenting on the taste or otherwise of the advert)

 

What fascinates me though is the advert itself. Take away the text for the moment, and look just at the image and there are some very clever touches....which bring with them some intriguing questions...for example, why is the gun pointed at the Mona Lisa's head? (why that way around and not the other way around?) why is the viewer studying the piece a businessman (and not a militia) - it reminds me of the "the stereotypical faceless businessman" (The Son of Man by Rene Magritte portrayed in The Thomas Crown Affair) what expression is the man wearing - a smile? are there tears? contemplation? relief?

Being hung next to such masterpieces, one would assume then that the gun is in fact not for sale?...which perhaps is the most intriguing of them all, as it then belies the need for the advert in first place.

Engineering for engineerings' sake..

There seems to be a pre-determined generalism of the idiosyncrasies of many nations around the world, aided perhaps by history (it is the victors who write history after all) the movie industry and perhaps the exaggerations of the press over the years.
However, if you look, there are little wonderful details that only add to the myths regarding each nation, and add a wry humour to reputations...

Here we have a British 2nd World War paratrooper helmet, note the simple screw on the side to attach the liner and adjust the chin strap...

Here is the German equivalent...

Note the screw in the side....a normal screw? Far from it - for apparently no reason at all it is a special screw, that needs a special tool....beautifully engineered and packaged of course...

 

The bolt in my own Nut and Bolt sculpture is from a German Mauser, I had a choice of that one or one from a .303 Lee Enfield, but somehow the Mauser was more attractively engineered.
So perhaps the myth has some truth, Germans do like to excel at their engineering (clearly contrary to the myth they have a dry sense of humour too, what do you do if you lose the tool?)

I love it so much I've bought a tool (and I don't even own a helmet)....in this modern world of throw away plastic, there is something very comforting about engineering just for the sake of it, let's hope someone somewhere keeps doing it...

Photos courtesy of War Hats