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Photo by Mark Savage
Origin (Corten steel and bronze) - Joseph Hiller
Born in Cornwall, 1974
Lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne
This sculpture brings together two objects; a bronze figure and a steel geometric form. The figure tentatively reaches towards this complex piece of geometry, the product of two thousand years of mathematics, creating an ambiguous narrative about the act of creation.
'Seeing sculpture in the flesh can be an instinctive and potent experience.
My most recent bodies of work bring together two types of object; human figures, cast in bronze and abstract, modernist forms made of steel. By using and subverting elements of classicism and modernism, an unfamiliar language emerges which evokes various meanings'.
The bronze figures are unclothed, making reference to the ancient nude. Yet these figures are smaller than life-size, naked, flawed and mortal. Their scale suggests an animal quality, as do their poses, which are modelled from video footage of the artist mimicking the movements of apes and other man-like creatures.
The steel structures are archetypes, abstracted using mathematical formulae into complex sculptural objects. Together these sculptures create a drama, which suggests man attempting to understand his external and internal worlds.
Joseph has been involved in many of the Gateshead Family Sculpture Day's.