Hemingway
2009
Acrylic, adhesive, paperclay and satay sticks.
29 x 14 x 12 cm
Made out of bamboo skewers, paper clay and acrylic, this construction alludes to the process of craft-making, minimal sculpture, Malaysian culture, “Objecthood” and Arte Povera. It is inspired by natural forms indigenous to this region. Though organic in it is form, the color palette with its "plastic" tone is contrastingly not. I intend to study the tactile quality of spikes and colors. The study is similar with my smaller toothpick sculptures, as the viewer moves around the sculpture, the sculpture’s surface changes and the concentration of yellow and green differ at each fold and crevice. This creates an intriguing visual effect giving the impression that the sculpture is moving and alive. An insecure art-object, the work is part sculpture, part construction and part painting and is a personal interpretation of Ernest Hemmingway, the mysterious writer that frequented natural landscape for inspiration. The relationship of man to his environment is critiqued in Hemingway as the male body becomes similarly formed as the landscape.