Two Became One

I’ve just realised that I didn’t get round to posting a photo of the stilted spiky cube piece once I installed inside my Frankenstein’s Orifice Box sculpture. So here it is, peeking out through the carved orifice of the external box structure.

I had to add an extra light source just so you could see some of the details in the photo but when I come to exhibit the piece I will probably leave the interior without any artificial illumination. Although this will mean that the viewer won’t be able to fully see what is inside I do like the intrigue that comes with knowing that there is something half hidden going on. As a kid I was a big fan of horror movies and the ones that I loved the best were always the ones where you never fully saw the monster – where it was always lurking in the shadows (letting your imagination fill in the gaps).

So as if to totally shatter the illusion, here’s the internal piece just before I sealed it in. As you can see from the photo, I had to disassemble the outer structure in order to join the stilts of the inner cube to the base section (Ikea this ain’t). Originally I had planned to just remove the lid of the outer box and slot the stilts into the base that way but whilst I was hammering the nails into the inner cube the stilts must have realigned themselves so I had to do a bit of wrestling to get everything to fit back together (no, I’m wrong – it is just like Ikea).

New Member of the Family

Here’s my latest Orifice Box sculpture. The pictures are courtesy of fellow RCA Secret contributor and photographer, Phil Sofer.

This one took quite a long time to construct as I wanted to cobble it together from multiple bits and pieces – to give it a bit of a Frankenstein’s Monster look. As with most of my box structures, I’m interested in the play between the organic and the geometric. Hopefully this can be seen in the interaction between the carved orifice and the angular interlocking wooden sections.

I’ve only just got round to putting the wheels on it – which is the part that I really look forward to as it gives a piece a sense of completion. However, this one isn’t totally finished yet. I’m working on a smaller cubic box (with an exploded front and back so that you can see straight through it) on stilts, that will sit inside this the sculpture. I’ve already completed the main structure of the inner box (which has now inspired me to make a series of them as sculptural pieces in their own right. This is one of the problems with sculpture – each piece can inspire multiple spin-offs) but before it is ready to install I intend to cover it in a thick coat of rusty nails, similar to my Nail Box sculpture.

This is me conducting rigorous structural integrity tests (don’t try this at home kids).

Addicted to Drawing

I’m not wishing to knock it but I seem to be addicted to drawing at the moment – maybe it's my way of distracting myself from thinking about other stuff. I’ve just uploaded a few recent drawings to my sketchbook page. Most of them relate to, or are ideas for, the new Orifice Box sculpture project that I’m working on. But they are not the drawings that I mentioned in my previous post. Those ones will appear soon, on my quick-fire drawings page – just as soon as I get round to uploading them.