Blog Post #5 Sculpture Analysis

 

Sculpture Analysis

                The sculpture I chose to examine more in depth was one depicting a scene of multiple passengers interacting with the door of a train car. When I first saw the sculpture, located in the hall of flags, I could immediately make out that it was a large group of people interacting with a small space. It was not until another student pointed out that the sculpture depicted a train that I actually realized the piece was centered around a group of people either struggling to get off or on the train. The sculpture is made out of metal by the technique of casting. Casting allows the artist to create a mold which liquid metal is poured into once completed, thus producing the free standing sculpture. The texture present throughout the sculpture confirms the creation of the sculpture using another medium such as clay (the presence of the marks created by the fingers of the artist). Although the main focal part of the sculpture (which depicts the group of people) is created using an additive method of casting, the second element of the sculpture, the train, is created using the subtractive method of assembling. The train is formed by multiple panels of the metal overlaying each other and being held in place to the base of the sculpture by screws. The screws in this part of the sculpture are a big indicator of the assembly aspect of the sculpture. I thought the artist did a great job of capturing emotion in the facial expressions within the passengers considering he or she was limited to really only shape, texture and value as displays of visual elements within the sculpture. I thought the absence of colors would make the task even that more difficult but the artist was able to really achieve these facial expressions with just manipulating the texture and value within certain places of the sculpture.