Creating spaces within and without the human form

Gema S: "Studies of the shape of the human body; adding layers to create it, looking at the spaces within it, and breaking down the component parts by looking at the individual body part shapes."

Aesthetic reactions related to mathematical and scientific concepts

Peter A: Sculpture is art in three dimensions. A sculpture occupies a space and the viewer interacts with it. The interaction will be a mixture of:

·          Gut reactions: I love it, I hate it, it is beautiful, it moves me, it is transcendental.

·          Cerebral reactions: it tells a story, it makes a point, it illustrates a concept.

·          Craft reaction: how is it made, is it what the artist intended?

A successful sculpture appeals to the viewer at all levels.

My background is in computing, science and mathematics with a continuous interest in the visual arts, especially sculpture. It has become clear to me that much of our aesthetic reactions can be related to mathematical and scientific concepts such as harmonics, ratios e.g. the golden mean, self-similarity and transformations. My art takes these concepts as a starting point and then I use my craftsmanship and artist's eye to create abstract sculpture.

See more of Peter A's photos of sculpture on Pinterest

I believe that some of the positive gut reaction to my work is related to the subconscious understanding of the concepts. If the viewer wishes they can explore the concepts and my art gives them clues, including the titles, but in some cases a separate explanation may be needed.

Recently I have been exploring harmonics, knot theory and self similarity.

Areas that I am considering for future work include chaos theory, polarisation and the Fibonnaci series.

Sculpture as breaking space

Breaking space and broken dreams

Sculpture is breaking space; transforming the environment, through the inclusion of one or more objects.

Tony A: "Breaking has many connotations.  I am interested in the inevitable breakdown and decay of all materials through their reaction with the environment.  As I was brought up by the sea, I am especially keen to use materials that have been carved by the sea.  Not just driftwood, but also the salt stained, rusted metal of broken sea defences, and the sand smoothed stones.

See more of Tony A's pictures of sculpture & inspiration on Pinterest

Breaking-down also influences the techniques I favour.  Much of the work is generally cut or carved, rather than cast or modelled.  I prefer to use discarded and left over materials.  I like surface treatments that illustrate the process of breakdown, of use and wear, such as rust, burning and partial polishing.  To me this is more representative of the real world than the shiny, antiseptic, mathematical shapes of many sculptures, which seek to avoid the effects of time and wear, rather than rejoice in it.