We went to the National Gallery last Monday, Vesak Day. What attracted my attention most were some sculptures that decorate the hallways of the grand building.
Entering from the supreme court wing, there is steel wire formed object hanging from the ceiling above the stairway. Looking up, it has coarse wires at outskirt, and dense wires in the center, looks like something flying with two wings and fluffy hairs, or is it just tumbleweed? When I got to the upper floor, looking at it at eye level, the visual changed, I did not see wings any more, but two legs, and two eyes! The fluffy outskirt is still there.
To me, it resembles a human figure trying to escape.
What does it real mean? What did the sculptor want to convey?
 |
| Sculpture - Ferment |
 |
| Eye level look of the Sculpture Ferment |
While I was browsing from show room to show room, I saw a sculpture in the hallway. This one is pretty easy to identify, the cavities of two palms and a head in a cubic concrete.
So in this sculpture, human is void, the outside world is solid.
Is that what it means? What did the sculptor want to convey?
 |
| Cubic concrete with cavities of a head and two palms |
What puzzled me the most is this blackened male body on the floor to an entrance at first floor. I went there from a grand staircase from basement. When I ascended there, this male body face down, four limps stretched out, flat on the ground, with the testicles prominently between the legs, appeared in front of me. It was provocative! I walked around, the body's head faces the entrance way, less dramatic but still striking.
An exhausted, burnt man hugging the earth or simply giving up?!
 |
| Sculpture - Close V - back |
 |
| Sculpture - Close V - front |
That's my interpretation. What did the sculptor want to convey?
After finishing my trip journal on more benign part of my visit to the gallery, these sculptures stayed with me. I was curious, and checked the gallery's website to find out who the sculptor is, and the names of the sculptures, what the sculptures convey.
These three sculptures are part of a solo show from the British sculptor Antony Gormley. The sculpture names are Ferment, Sense and Close V. In fact there is a fourth one - Horizontal Field, tangled stainless wires, which is less provoking, but more comprehensible to me.
Isn't the horizontal field just a reflection of the downtown core, the jungle of concretes formed by skyscrapers, beautiful domes, ugly match boxes …?
 |
| Horizontal Field Singapore |
I went to the sculptor's website and looked at his collections of sculptures. Individually some sculptures make no sense, but collectively they made sense to me - the sculptures were the extension of the sculptor's thoughts, his loneness, conflicts, struggles, haplessness, and thirsty for connection...
The sculptures' simplicity and abstraction appeal to me.
Notes
Different people make different senses out of a sculpture. Here are the interpretations by National Gallery of Singapore for the first 3 sculptures.
FERMENT, Located at Supreme Court Foyer, Supreme Court Wing, Level 1.Ferment is a life-sized figure captured in mid-motion, described by a mass of irregular geometric polygonal shapes. The figure seems to be either emerging from or disappearing into this matrix, which is inspired by frothing bubbles. The solid form of traditional sculpture is replaced by what appears to be a dynamic energy field, aided by the light reflecting on the stainless steel of the outer cells.
SENSE, Located at Supreme Court Wing, Level 3 Sense reverses body/space relations and presents the human body as a void within a concrete cube: the smallest space that a crouching human body can occupy. We only see two palm prints and the top of the head where they break through the surface, suggesting a continuum between human consciousness and the world that surrounds us. Sense demonstrates Gormley’s exploration of the body as place, using the most commonly used material in our built environment.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment