Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
By: Toin Adams
This sculpture will be 10m tall and hung in a four storey atrium of an arts and media complex in Birmingham. It will be a white fibre glass spiral, moving almost imperceptably and lit from within, creating a dream like atmosphere. The surface will be made up of tangled bodies, no clear beginning or end. Vaguely orgiastic. www.steelsculpt.com
As a sculptor I'm interested in the human body mainly although the musculature and movement of most creatures fascinate me. In action there is a line that flows through the whole body linking its disparate parts together. I want to capture that poetry in motion.
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘Big Bang Macquette’
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘Detail Macquette’
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘Detail Macquette’
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘The Big Bang Spiral - detail’
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘Macquette detail’
# 5 [10 May 2007]
Things are coming along very well. A bit of a delay cause by the client taking the nebulous nature of the title a little too literally. Back on track though and now I'm just grappling with serious gaps in my knowlege of anatomy. The angles are really strange and I still haven't got enough movement or twisting...but I think things will improve,I'm starting to see the shapes better.
# 4 [4 May 2007]
A few days of torrential rain destroyed my first macquette...alas ....so now I'm onto my second. If only my studio was a bit bigger. The good news though is that I've met an engineer who has a workshop only ten minutes away from my studio and he has the right enthusiasm and more importantly the right kit to tackle the job. He has also said I might use his warehouse for making the sculpture which is dead handy since all I had was an open carpark in which to do it.
I have decided also that I want to include fibre optics in the piece. A talented friend of mine Ansel Thompson, designed a beautiful sofa in fibre glass using cracked fibre optic cables to stunning effect and I am hoping to somehow incorporate that idea into my piece, luckily with his help. Honestly, all this luck I'm having lately makes me nervous...I'm bound to trip over any second.
Ruby has had a cold for a few days so I've not been able to get much sculpting done but it's on its way. This time in red clay. And we're still rich in time.....
# 3 [13 April 2007]
The cricked back was followed by an evil spell of flu - what a great beginning to the project! That's the problem with having small children. It's like living in a petri dish. Anyway.....finally compos mentis (as I'll ever be) and physically able I hit the telephone in search of an engineer to help me build a ten meter high gantry (is that the word?!) so that I can start welding up the central spine. I had a chat with my mate Ze who's a welder and he reckons we can probably do it ourselves. We need to set up an 11 meter high post, set in concrete with tension cables with a cantilevered arm braced against a scaffolding tower. We then weld up the sections of the spiral and bolt them together so that we can dismantle them later. We're going to do it in my car park....summer is coming and it gets pretty hot here so shelter for when we get to the stage of casting the bodies is going to be a critical thing too. Problem...the only space we have to make the shaded area is right beside my muscatel vines....serious issue, because it'll block the sunshine to the plants. Me art or the grapes...mmmh...
# 2 [6 April 2007]
Yup, that was a little optimistic. However I have made a start at least and will probably have something to show for next week. It's so annoying having all these public holidays.....how's a girl sposed to get anything done! Well, everything should be back to normal by Tuesday, ie; slot Ruby in school and crack on with the opus....frustrating, fingers itching...ideas popping....etc.
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘The Big Bang (detail)’
Macquette in progress
[enlarge]
Toin Adams, ‘The Big Bang’
Macquette in progress
# 1 [30 March 2007]
I have been taken up with spirals for some while on a previous project which came to nothing sadly for lack of funds. The good thing however is that I couldn't quite get that satisfying shape out of my head. So when I was given an open brief by a trusting client the spiral forced its way into my sketches and resulted in an orgiastic swirl of entangled bodies. I mean they are really entangled...in the best possible way.... However the commission is for a public place so I was a bit worried that I'd lose the commission once I presented my 1.5m macquette in case it offended but since it was easily the best design for the space Ihad to risk submitting it. Happily the client was delighted and I have now been given the formal go ahead.
After a great beginning however I have been laid low with a cricked back - no good for anything least of all the creation of a ten meter steel frame for my orgy! Much swallowing of anti-inflammatories and thinking of pure thoughts, one week later I'm beginning to think I'll dance again - so have rashly promised macquette MarkII by the end of next week.....ho hum wish me luck.