It would be difficult to critique or evaluate the work I make without referencing its strong ties aesthetically to the Minimalism movement of the 1960s/70s. My reliefs are geometric, clean and slick, using a smaller (yet bold and solid) colour palette. The scale of my upcoming works should be beginning to imitate and reflect that of a lot of the works created during this movement; made simply in relation to the human form. ‘Die’ (1962) by Tony Smith is an important and poignant piece of art made at the very beginning of the drive towards minimalism. A six-foot steel cube with internal bracing, the size of the piece was decided by the proportions of a human body. According to Smith, had the piece been any bigger it would have been noted as a “monument”, any smaller and downgraded to a measly “object”. Pieces like this, as well as my own work, are made to challenge the viewers’ perception of the space. The work acts as an intervention which interrupts movement through a gallery and forces the viewer to confront its volume and placement.
Although my work could be classed as minimalist in a visual sense, it conversely actively rejects the movement’s aspect of materiality, which was an integral quality works being made at the time. Minimalist artists were interested in fabricating works using industrial, factory-grade materials which opposed the traditional “crafted” idea surrounding sculpture. This led to works which expressed no sense of character, nor did they give anything away about the artist. I, however, have persistently been attracted to making work with a handcrafted, tactile nature. I like my work to go both ways- be slick and straight-edged while also speaking of being handmade and susceptible to human error. I gravitate towards materials that require preparation before being used as or in a work of art, rather than anything prefabricated. An important aspect of my work is the viewer’s recognition of the effort put into the making process, however due to the nature of the pieces this is usually shown implicitly through minor details, such as a hand-sanded, hand-painted edge.
