It is part of me, part of art and part of my work. 

I think that artists put their sensuality on display. I am sure many are unaware of doing so but it is unavoidable. It comes through the artists’ preferences and the choices which are sometimes not conscious decisions.  Things like the materials and colours they choose to work in, textures they make, the way they use line and so on.  It is something that is difficult to pin down but it is, when the artist is not trying too hard, easily spotted. 

A work I often think about is ‘Plum Cream’ by Penny Siopis, now in the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg.  It is a painting of a cake but it is a cake that feels to me to have the ingredients of labia and pudenda rather than flour and eggs.  Perhaps it should have been banned as obscene but I love it.  I much prefer this to her history paintings which I find are over intellectualised and pander to the academics.  ‘Plum Cream’ has that sensual content, the real soul of the woman, and that is something to get excited about.

At university I used to take an intense interest in the works put on the wall for the monthly critiques.  Not only because I could learn something about the composition of works but also because I could learn about the people who made them.  Coincidently, they were mostly women.  I like to think it was a balanced life as my social education was then at least as good as my academic efforts.

The making sculpture is often a sensual activity.  Perhaps this is more obvious in modelling wet clay than carving dry rock.  It is felt, fingered, and caressed into shape by the artists’ hands.  Painting, by contrast, is generally prodded onto canvas with some hairs on the end of a stick and viewed from a distance.  Admirers of sculpture often feel the work and it is a medium more easily appreciated by blind people.

Of course my own sensuality or frigidity is out there for all to see.  I try and embrace it as I think of it as worthwhile content.  Each of new works In a Tangle, and Reef Ranger (sold) display that part of me.  ‘In a Tangle’ has the warmth of the wood, the curvilinear lines, and the intimate subject.   ‘Reef Ranger’ is a satisfying subject that I have tackled several times.  Because of its amorphous form an octopus can be “bent” to take almost any shape and becomes a vehicle for expression of a sensual self.  I am not alone in my choice of this subject and am aware of Hokusai’s erotic octopus which some may read as lewd.  However, for me, it so explicitly expresses what many have felt; the desire to consume your lovers’ body.

Naturally I would like to think I am deeply sensual.  It is the kind of accolade that would suit my artists’ identity and add to my sense of being a good lover.  However, as I am not in the habit of fondling myself, I am in a poor position to judge.  Perhaps it would be best to ask my wife.  Then again don’t, as you might feel obliged to burst my bubble. 

I think, as a New Years’ resolution, I will heed those lines from my favourite film “give yourself over to absolute pleasure”.  That for me will be falling in love with and getting steamy with my bits of wood and bone.   

Regards
Carl

2010  |  Wood  |  1940 x 400 x 320

2010  |  Bone   |   315 x 270 x 120

I make sure that I do the important things like squirrel away any spare cash and I try my very best with everything else. Perhaps the least important things in my new sculptures, Ironstone Head, Jump and Hullabaloo, are the pins, hangers and the undersides of the bases on which the sculptures stand. In all my mounted works I use stainless steel pins to connect sculpture to the base and felt underneath them to prevent them from scratching the floor or desk. On my wall mounted works I always put in twice as many screws into the hangers as are necessary, the screws are solid brass and the hanging plates made of stainless steel. I know it is excessive and perhaps I am insecure but I do not want them fall down, scratch a surface or develop rust marks. I try hard to make sure that there will never be a problem.

Professor Robert Brooks once remarked that I was a bottom feeder. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about. I have come to understand that what he meant is the opposite of a high flyer, someone who likes to secure his foothold and not to leave anything to chance. However, I should know better as fate always has some say in the way things turn out.

This year we were robbed of a car, used our reserves to buy a new one and then the recession hit us with no sales for 3 months. This famine and feast cycle is not unusual for us. However, this time, without our savings I became very anxious.

To avoid destitution I imposed measures to mitigate the situation. The geyser was turned off until needed and we took shorter showers which were sometimes cold because we had forgotten to turn the geyser on. The groceries were pared down to the bare essentials. We always seemed to be eating cabbage and I missed the chops and chocolate. The dogs were put on diet and the kids supplemented their rations with the peanuts from their allocations of pet rat food.

I think it was Gary Player who said that “the harder I practice, the luckier I get” and that sums it up for me. There is an element of chance in anything you do. There are ups and there are downs but with hard work and careful planning I think one can weather the storms and improve the odds of success. My over reaction does have its advantages as we have pruned our expenses and implemented some good habits. Our stolen car was a bit of bad luck but, as fate would have it, there has been some good luck.

Happily, I have been nominated for a fellowship at Yale. I realise that it is still only a remote possibility because out of the 750 nominations, they will only choose a dozen or so. However a nomination to a fellowship at Yale is fortunate and exciting even if it remains but a nomination and if it succeeds, this lucky bottom feeder will be a high flyer.

Regards

Carl

2009  |  Ironstone Head  |  855mm x 300mm  x 130mm

2009  |  Jump  |   750mm x 390mm x 130mm

2009   |   Hullabaloo   |   485mm x 270mm x 100mm

Chickens (and roosters) were part of my imagery long before we got them, because as a subject the chicken has a lot to offer. The images made can assume a wide variety of interpretations and anything from arrogance to timidity is possible. Often there is some measure of stupidity intended, which makes it a fitting metaphor for human beings. It is a colourful subject, has interesting lines and its compact form lends itself to a visually exciting image. As a free range and cocky student I made a linocut print titled “Cocks”. The subject has been repeated many times, but in different forms and imbued with different meanings. Recently, I have made the “Bohemian Bird” which, like all of my previous chicken sculptures, is slightly different in form and content.

The form and content of this work is linked to another new work, “Sensual Soul”, done at about the same time. It is about the poignancy of life: Sensual and beautiful but decaying; powerful but helpless; contented but sad – which all says something about the wonder and futility of life. Perhaps this work has to do with some introspection and looking back on the part of this happy artist whose hair is falling out and whose teeth are missing. One who has begun to think about the pathos of life.

The chickens are no longer a food source for us. They have become our pets and perhaps a mirror of our slightly dysfunctional world. They, like us, have traffic jams and like our ex Chief of Police have some undesirable associates. Recently, I removed a 1.3 m Mozambican Spitting Cobra from the chicken run who lived up to its name and spat at me and in the eye of my dog. Poison was our first option too when dealing with mites on the chickens. A natural alternative was not even contemplated. The traffic jams occur ever day at rush hour which is when I feed them. Each day our flock rushes ahead into the cage and when, on seeing that I am not there yet, they rush out again and into those still heading into the cage. This causes a snarl-up and exacts a lot of foul language as they get under my feet.

Our Arcadian dream is a distant memory. It was worn away by the building boom, undermined by the snakes and the mites, but the most serious damage was done by the chickens. They imploded our pastoral aspirations when my wife saw them dining on dog poop. No matter how natural you might consider this, it is not for us and we have stuck to Pick n Pay’s whole grain eggs ever since.

2009   |   Sensual Soul   |   1190mm x 370mm x 200mm

2009   |   Bohemian Bird   |   765mm x 700mm x 220mm