TURNIP LADY with SILVERFISH
1991
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... if you go down to the woods ... or the sea ...
The TURNIP LADY is a strange little creature. She could be a wood nymph or she could be a mermaid, but she started life from a very different place.
When asked to make a piece of work by a very successful and elegant friend, I remembered an incident when we had shared a flat in London many years ago.
This confident and well-appointed young woman was to be found in front of the mirror pulling at her clothes... and saying she felt like a turnip. (She did not look anything like a root vegetable!) It seemed to me that if she felt like that, then most women must feel like that at some time or another.
How frequently the internal life is at odds with the external... I wonder if animals suffer with this phenomenon?
A while later I came across a two-legged parsnip (reminiscent of a mandrake), which provided the link... and the TURNIP LADY arrived quite quickly after that.
Once the figure was established, she needed time. Although she was jealously clutching something to her ample bossom, it was not clear what exactly it was, and more importantly, she had no face yet.
Many years afterward, and many experiments later, her face appeared out of the wax, shortly followed by the little fish. It was as if she was just waiting for me to recognize her.
The TURNIP LADY is a mystery, and I am very fond of her for it.
- Category:
- Fauna
Location: Indoor
Size: Small
Dimensions: 12cm x 12cm x 24cm H
Medium: Bronze & Sterling Silver Fish
Edition size: Edition of 10
Collection: Private & Artist's Collections
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