Sputnik (to travel with)
Sputnik is a durational sculptural performance.
A perceptual event more than an object.
Its regenerative cycle itself is the medium.
Across extended periods of public performance, I load a steel framework with raw clay that I process in situ. As I orbit this bodily entity feeding it with material, urgent adjustments needed to rebalance the articulated armature often determine my next move.
Over time clay shrinks, putting pressure on the steel joints; before cracking, falling, revealing new planes and calling for readjustment and re-formation using its own recycled material. .
Seemingly in sympathy with the clay, my own body feels the tear and repair of muscles as it reaches, stretches, presses, pulls, breathes and rests.
Wrestling with structure and gesture, I negotiate the conditions through which I can move and be moved.
Three iterations of Sputnik
Sputnik 222
Its space satellite or steam punk appearance gave it its name.
Sputnik Heave Ho
Named after the levers added to hoist the rhomboid structure up.
Sputnik Squall
A sudden rush of trouble; a brief fuss or cry.
The project began with the aim of mastering the resistance between steel and clay, to satisfy my desire to combine structure and gesture.
It developed into a relational process of care, tension and regeneration, or regeneracy.
And began to feel like dance, hence this collaboration with Zoe Tankard-Bowkett:
Heave: MASS Sculpture Show
Erotics of Knowing: Field Studies symposium
