Thursday 1 September 2011

Stillborn in Bronze

Unfortunately, it been so busy I haven't been able to do the prep for the moulding on Hyper realistic bust #3 "Banner Boy".  Plus, I've made some further changes to #5 but I wanted to show those later. I thought instead to return to my bronze sculpture series.
In today's post, I wanted to show another bronze sculpture of a baby but this time the subject is a baby that is stillborn. A difficult subject to talk about when unfortunately it occurs more often than people think even in Canada. I didn't do this sculpture because I was depressed or wanting to express some sort of morbid thinking.
It's more to do with process and systems, when things work and when they don't.
The sculpture was first modeled in clay then further refined in wax back in 2004. The piece was later cast in bronze in 2005.
Image copyright  Art  Di Lella
Image copyright  Art  Di Lella
Image copyright  Art  Di Lella
 After doing the "Baby Born" sculpture,I didn't feel that piece was complete so in a sense it needed a metaphorical partner to complete this idea. The irony that one's birth is also one's death I found compelling.
This piece like it's partner was exhibited in 2007 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
Next week, I should have some updates on #5 and #3 BB.
Have a great Labour Day weekend.

3 comments:

  1. your pictures are quite amazing; it must be the light that is picking up all the detail you've done

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  2. I have been reading through your blog and it is very interesting to see the progress of the various pieces! I've thought about sculpting directly onto skulls before, its really neat to see how you are doing it. What inspired the hyper realism? (I did a school report on Ron Mueck the other year, so of course I am reminded of his work, though I am sure there are others who work in this way.)
    Thanks for sharing!!

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  3. Thank you Melanie for stopping by the blog. What inspired the hyper realism approach is a great question. It started out originally as a experiment to find out if a distinctive face can be produced over an individual skull. Also I thought the hyper realistic approach would be more compelling than the more conventional modeled surface treatment that is found on more traditional sculpture. I didn't want these to turn into conventional busts because that would be inconsistent with installation concept that has been planned for this series.

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