15
working with wire
by Michelle Castles
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I am hopelessly addicted to my subject. That is, observing the human spirit with all its strivings and ambition made manifest in the body as we see it with our own eyes.
I have worked as a sculptor specialising in the human form all of my life and am only now feeling the slow satisfaction of mastering my art.
My preferred medium is wire mesh, unsurprisingly not so uncommon among sculptors these days because it is such a versatile material. It expresses perfectly what I wish to communicate. I am, in effect, constructing the outer shell of the body only, showing that, as the Buddhists say, ‘Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form’. Its presence is ethereal, its detail is minimal.
To take this inanimate material and give it a ‘living’ quality is enormously satisfying. The sculptures capture a moment in time - a dive, a sprint, a pirouette; and with transformative use of light, I am able to elevate this industrial substrate in to a human form with a soul.
I relish creating accessible art that delights people. I never want to impose my creations on anyone, which is why the translucency conveys the perfect subtlety I aim to achieve.
In this way large indoor installations don’t need to dominate a space. I can imply grandeur, hint at brilliance, allude to greatness, suggest motion. ‘Less is more’ works effectively here because the viewer is able to fill in the blanks, making each piece totally interactive.
Suffice to say, I love my job. I get to sit in a warm, bright studio overlooking the Cumbrian Fells, working with wire all day. It wasn’t always like this.
Today while I work on the completion of a large sculpture for a garden, I think about my first studio. It was on the top of a disused warehouse in a busy city centre, the only window overlooking the concrete blocks of a multi-storey car park; the only sign of life, the odd pigeon.
Photos and text supplied by Michelle Castles