THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 5TH OCTOBER 2021: DAY 555

Thinking-allowed No.22: Thumbnail sketch for,
'Scapuloid.' Baseless Orientation in 'Womb'.  B(l)each(ed) Bones.

Baseless: Objects in the Void.

I have used the term ‘objects in the void’ many times before to describe how the staffage of a painting behaves within that virtual space, on this occasion I am however using it to describe how ‘real’ objects may behave in relation to nothing. Ironically nothing is a big word, but that is basically what I am saying.

In this instance I am talking about a new series of sculptural objects upon which I have began to work; this might seem like something of a departure from my painting practice, but it is actually a direct offshoot from it. The objects in question are what I am currently terming as ‘baseless’ in that they are a form of abstraction, although they have no direct relationship to anything else, they are forms evolved from a body of experience much in the same way that my ‘personal topography paintings are. They are also baseless in that they what might be considered to defy gravity, they are created in defiance of gravity and are intended to be considered in this way. I am only just coming to terms with this idea myself as I begin to consider the exposition of such works. The first of these works has just reached a critical juncture, the main body of the piece is now complete, there is still a reasonable amount of work to be completed on the piece but on the whole this outstanding work can all be considered to be refining and finishing. Up until this point the sculpture has been ‘grown’ within a structure of my own devising, a sort of cubic exoskeleton which I refer to as a ‘womb’. This device allows for the sculpture to be suspended/supported in space whilst I work on it, making it possible to turn the piece through various attitudes as the process proceeds without the need for it to rest on or develop a base. Such considerations as this are of course counter to so much traditional sculptural work in that the piece neither develops nor potentially requires a plinth.