"BALL!" 2003-2005 Iowa City, USA

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"BALL!" 2003-2005

Iowa City, USA. 3 bronze figures and one bronze ball, set into a fountain.

I had been working on the plans for this set of figures for some time, and finally made time to create a working model during the Umha Aois 2003 project on Rathlin Island. See the Umha Aois website for more details on that project. The final figures are all cast in bronze.

For the smaller artwork, the maquette of this commission, the original ceramic parent figures are hand modelled, then glazed in a charcoal fire. The glaze is created using a type of salt (borax) which I sprinkled onto the red hot figures in the fire. As the borax melts and fuses with the clay it absorbs the vapours of molten bronze creating colours ranging from blue-green through to reds and browns. The bronze is melted in the parent figures, they are used as crucibles, then the baby and ball were poured.

For this larger fountain piece I wanted to recreate that impression of the parent figures having undergone some life altering transformation (being used as a crucible) which leaves them time-worn in comparison to the pristine nature of the child figure

Image Details

  • "Ball!" fountain
  • Children playing in the fountain
  • The fountain lit up at night
  • The artwork echoes the children at play