CarapaceOne is part of a continuing investigation of ideas on perception, of things that engage the forces of nature, of things that change and grow, which was first explored in my 2012 solo Metamorphosis at the Brenda May Gallery, Sydney.
As reflected in my other works in this format, this sculpture pursues that moment between balance and flight where the precise distribution of mass, form and space activate the sculpture – a creative engineering that aims to imbue a potency of lightness, of energy and action.
Inspired by observation of the natural marine world, it is intended to embody complexity, movement and violent action - a sense of motion frozen in a moment of time. In CarapaceOne, some crustacean-like animal rears up and twists its segmented body off the ocean bed holding its giant claw aloft. Reduced to its minimal constituents, CarapaceOne explores the tension reflected in the sudden action and/or reaction of this small marine animal to an external stimulus - a reductionist approach to understanding the nature of complex things by trimming them back to the elemental interactions between their fundamental components. |
The titles anima ('soul') and turris ('tower') are taken from the Latin phrases reficiam anima - refresh the soul and turris fortitudinis - a tower of strength. From the Catholic Extreme Unction:
Orémus. Réspice, quaésumus, Dómine, fámulum tuum in infirmitáte sui córporis fatiscentem, et reficiam anima, quam creásti: ut castigatiónibus emendátus, se tua séntiat medicina salvátum.
Let us pray. Look down, Lord, upon Thy servant who is failing in the weakness of his body; refresh the soul created by Thee, that brought to amendment by chastisements he may feel himself saved by Thy healing.
Salvum (salvam) fac servum tuum. / Deus meus, sperántem in te.
Mitte ei, Dómine, auxilium de sancto. / Et de Sion tuére eum.
Esto ei, Dómine, turris fortitudinis. / A fácie inimíci.
Nihil profíciat inimícus in eo. / Et filius iniquitátis non apponat nocére ei.
Dómine, exáudi oratiónem meam.
Save your servant. / Who hopes in Thee, my God.
Send him help, O Lord, from Thy holy place. / And from Sion Thy protection.
Be to him, O Lord, a tower of strength. / From the face of the enemy.
Let not the enemy prevail over him. / Nor the son of iniquity draw nigh to hurt him.
O Lord, hear my prayer. |
