Tons of Circumstances, 1997
Traditionally a sculpture is an upright figure or form, often cut from stone or cast in bronze. Tons of Circumstances breaks with this tradition. It consists of a series of scattered island formations in sandblown alluminium and tangled metal chains which spread out on the floor. Some of the islands look like moulds, the shells used to cast a sculpture. We do not know whether the fragments and chains are coming together or if they have been torn apart, but the sculpture illustrates the movement and energy contained in the creation. Tons of Circumstances focuses on the moulds, the space and the energy, i.e. the elements that are the basis of the creation of a sculpture, and lets them become a work itself.
Full Length, 2008
Kirsten Ortwed often works with untraditional materials in her sculptures, but the large sculpture Full Length follows the classic tradition and is moulded in clay and then cast in bronze. Full Length is an examination of how the shape of a sculpture is made. It is difficult to determine what is being dissolved and what is being created. The sculpture seems to have been interrupted in the middle of a process where the artist’s work with the material influences the shape, but where also the natural expression of the material, in this case the clay, affects the shape. It is in the interplay between the artist’s work and the inherent qualities of the material that new possibilities constantly arise.
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