Head in Wire 3

Head in Wire

TITLE: Head in Wire
DATE: December 2020 - January 2021
MEDIUM: Galvanised wire, Mild Steel, Paint and Teak

This offering for the Christmas Exhibition at Y Art Gallery is a departure from my usual suspended forms. Mounting the wire head on a block of teak provided a new engineering challenge and has given the piece the feeling of a traditional bust. From the original piece, a second was commissioned.

"The Boites de Nuit twinkle like fireflies in her thick hair"

TITLE: ""The Boites de Nuit twinkle like fireflies in her thick hair"
DATE: October 2019
MEDIUM: Green Plastic Coated Fence Wire, Black Telephone Wire, Human Hair

This sculpture was made specifically for the Y Gallery Group Exhibition entitled After. The curators of the exhibition, Yasmin Hadeed, Melanie Archer and Melissa Miller selected a group of artists, gave us the choice of 2 poems to be the starting point for this piece.

This piece is inspired by Derek Walcott’s 1962 poem, Night in the Gardens of Port of Spain. Walcott uses the metaphor of the woman to describe the sensual aspect of night. The darkness awakens our senses of feeling, smell and hearing while our sense of vision is reduced to the binary reading of light and dark, absent of tone and colour.

The nightclub (boites de nuit) reference sparked the image of the go go dancers of the 1960s with their embellished costumes. I used the green fence wire to connote garden imagery and my hair for the tassels and fringe to add the sensual aspect.  

Pretty Mas

TITLE: Pretty Mas
DATE: July - August 2018
MEDIUM: Galvanised Wire, Chicken Feathers and Spray Paint

Pretty Mas was produced specifically for the Y Gallery Group Exhibition White Cube.

The human  head / skull as a stand alone form, is a new motif. This piece, together with the Skull Study Series continues from more recent masks Heart Mask and Horn Mask, which included the back of the head. As with the Third Eye Flowering Series of Torsos, a costume in the form of a headpiece in this case, is an extension of the sculptural form, extending out from the skull. The feathers and the minimal wire structure of the headpiece, contrast with the denser treatment of the head form.  

Serenity Prayer

TITLE: Serenity Prayer
DATE: July 2020
MEDIUM: 18 - 22 Gauge Galvanised Wire, Nylon fishing line, Bamboo

“ Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” 

2020 began with a sense of forboding. For 12 years, I have listened to my husband espousing collapse propaganda, leaving me depressed and anxious. Driven to “do something” I spent the Carnival weekend creating a food garden. 2 weeks later, it all made sense as COVID 19 started spreading across the globe towards us like a slow motion trainwreck. During the lockdown, working in my garden, with all its triumphs and failures, kept me sane. 

This group of 13 Wire Humming Birds was made specifically for the Y Gallery Group Exhibition entitled Raw, Untrammelled by Convention.  Selected artists were invited to respond to the Covid 19 pandemic and the lockdown that ensued.  

Skull Study

TITLE: Skull Study Series
DATE: July 2018
MEDIUM: Galvanised Wire and paint

The Skull Study Series was produced specifically for the Y Gallery Group Exhibition White Cube.

From the beginning, my sculpture work has been referencing the human body. The female torso and the mask are repeated motifs. The Skull Study Series continues from more recent masks Heart Mask and Horn Mask, which included the back of the head. However these new studies are stripped of any embellishment.

I consider my wire sculptures to be 3 dimensional drawings. The challenge is to maintain the subtle changes in planes so as the communicate the true structure and form.

Prince and Princess of the Land of the Hummingbird

TITLE: Prince and Princess of the Land of the Hummingbird
DATE: 17 February 2020
MEDIUM: Stainless Steel Wire, Swarovski Crystals

A collaboration with Peter Minshall and Meiling for Machel Monday - The Wedding 2020