For me, with sculpture, there has always the problem of weight, movability and, of course, durability if a piece is to be placed outside Stone, such as marble, while very beautiful and relatively easy to carve, is really heavy even if on a small scale, meaning it requires a lot of muscle and possibly facilities for lifting and shifting. The same is true for concrete, wood and most metals.

In addition to issues of weight, the production of bronzes is complex and expensive as the considerable involvement of competent craftspeople is usually needed even if you can do a lot yourself (see Essay “Bronze Sculpture”). Personally, I find it tedious to have to rely on many helpers and technical devices and prefer to keep things low key and minimalist, without too many moving parts. Consequently, I was on the lookout for a material that would allow me to produce larger works still light enough to be easily moved about. At the same time, I was also very keen on the option of a painted surface in order to create 3-dimensional works combining both form and colour.

Kate Lang from Kawakawa has been making props for theatre and television productions for years and is a real wizard on the Polystyrene front. While I am unsure if this medium is much safer than the Polyester/Resin used by St Phalle, (see Context “Ferro Cement”), it is more attractive to me, mostly because it can be carved. In about 2016 Kate offered a 2-day workshop, which I decided to attend. Having been extremely busy at this point, I arrived completely unprepared and also several hours late. People were already way into carving their items. Kate handed me a longish piece of poly, a knife and a carving tool, saying, “Here you are, just get a feel and do something with it. Keep it simple.”

Mmmmhhh…. All right, I will do something with it. But what??…

At that point in time the image of a sculpture by Joan Miro was saved as a background on my computer screen. I had taken this photo when visiting the Maeght Foundation in St Paul de Vence in 2014 (Pic 1).

That particular image, and being exposed to it whenever I opened my computer, had a strong visual impact upon me. Assessing that piece of Polystyrene that was now in my hand, I decided to carve ‘My own Miro’ – a small Maquette based on his amazing sculpture. Pictures 2 and 3 show different views of the finished piece.

What followed were several years of intense work with this material. Every sculpture was a new and exciting experiment; specifically, figuring out to what this medium might actually lend itself. Quite a lot as it turned out!

My sculpture “Anatolian Beauty”, 2020 (pic 4) is inspired by a little idol found in Anatolia/Turkey and estimated to be 5000 years old (pic 5). I saw the original in Venice in an exhibition called “Idols” in 2018 and also bought the catalogue – description in picture 6.

Most of my pieces are untitled. But while working on “The Dinner Guest” (pic 10), I sometimes had him sit at the table (pic 11) so I could build a more ‘intimate’ relationship with the work and see how it was evolving. That is how he got his name. It stuck although I think he really has the air of an army General which might also be a good name. I am anti-war and, in any case, wanted to make sure there was some heart energy present. Hence the big, very warm red dot.