A Cautionary Tale Sculpture

A CAUTIONARY TALE I have always enjoyed the physicality of the ‘fragment’ in sculpture. Initially, the examples of ancient architectural relief-carvings and decorations presented as random shapes in museum displays were, and still are, very inspiring to me because of their ‘snapsot’ kind of fragmentation and also for the interesting broken profile shapes that they make. But there was also the realisation of how the meaning and focus of that work can easily become altered, misconstrued, subverted, and even forgotten, in the process of removal and isolation from the original context. This idea has a very familiar everyday parallel in contemporary life too in that photo-editing, especially in popular news media, frequently removes parts of images from the original context to construct another story or to suggest an alternative version of ‘truth’ often with great and convincing power. ‘A Cautionary Tale’ deliberately makes play with those ideas to suggest an association with antiquity and to the folklore and legends of ancient civilisations in attempting to address a very contemporary issue. This sculpture, by re-appropriating specific imagery, design and meaning of a contemporary British Highway Code sign, refers to a growing divide in UK society regarding contentious ‘sporting’ activities such as hunting and also about those who choose to support and participate in it. Despite deep opposition to the practice, and a legal ban on it, many of the participants express their ‘right to hunt’ as a traditional activity and show little, or no, concern at all for animal rights and welfare. The sculpture takes up this idea and very lightly ridicules modern day Man, enjoying on one hand, the sophisticated comforts of contemporary life whilst still also assuming a ‘traditional’ and almost divine right to exercise a god-like superiority running riot through the natural world. It was originally carved in 2004-5 and the photograph shows it being exhibited as part of the Bolton Abbey Sculpture Trail in 2007 (North Yorkshire, UK) where it was temporarily in position attached to a tree at the junction of 2 footpaths. Two tailor made brackets were fitted to the tree to secure a strong fixing (over an 8 month duration) and were then connected to fittings on the back of the sculpture. The steel bars are still attached to the back of the stone and could easily be adapted to suit an installation in another format (please see photographs). Whilst, I would suggest that the best fixing arrangement would be to make use of these steel bars on the reverse, another photograph shows 2 holes in the underside edge of the sculpture which could facilitate another installation possibility. Steel rods, set into some other material base, could then be connected into the holes to hold the sculpture upright although I would not recommend that as the safest or most durable option for display. Peter Maris April 2017

Sculpture:Stone on Stone

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:47.6 W x 28 H x 3.9 D in

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