Filling Space with emptiness Sculpture

Series titled: Filling Space with emptiness. This series involves using domestic materials, such as the dress pin, within an industrial medium -steel mesh, combining the attributes of both within one structure; in a cube form. The strength of objects as small as dress pins lies in vast quantities, as it transforms the industrial mesh material by producing a texture that resembled fur/hair or velvet. A singular pin has a sharp quality that evokes a certain repellence which in large numbers is immediately subverted; the texture gained instead is softened and has an alluring tactile appearance, gently reducing the linearity of the form. The pins therefore maintain a dual, contrasting presence, a tension, which is at once repellent and alluring. As an on-going series of works, I have developed onto other materials. I have used dress pins, black tacks, white/black sewing thread, silver drawing pins and mirrored glass, copper, magnetic film and am currently working on stone and concrete. Throughout the construction /destruction process I maintain only the square/cube structure as a motif. The cube evokes a sense of contained space, which is further emphasized by using a full six sides. A four sided version however, gently alludes to the shape but allows for the space designated within the four walls or the interior to become at once an inside and an outside. The cube form allows for the works to form a dialogue with the space in which they are placed, exploring issues of containment/openness, inside/outside. Within this duality, there are further dual implications of control/submission. The persistence of the cube form is visually dominant, however the shape is dominated by the second texture created on each sculpture. The vast quantity of pins, thread, tacks etc. deliberately dominates the structure. Accordingly, the mirrored glass sculptures, four sided cubes, are both reflective/transparent, sides are concealed and revealed, in the light it is at once visible and yet suddenly disappears into the surface on which it is placed. The layering of a second texture per sculpture, repetitively placing pins/tacks/stitches/scratches again and again, is rendered a very physical gesture, a persistent act. Thus the act and the physicality of it, its recurring/obsessive manner heightens the tangible handling of materials: the presence of the Artist.