Swell
Stephen Schofield
May 8 – September 15, 2002
Stephen Schofield, Swell, 2002; 5' x 24' x 10'; polymerized cement, fiberglass, polyurethane, steel rods and pipes
Artist Statement
It would be a pretty good guess that a work called Swell is not a reflection on urban spaces, an investigation of nature's place in the city or even a commentary on the site and history of the Toronto Sculpture Garden. Rather, I chose a title that sounds a bit dumb, full of wonder and rather sexy because I'm more interested in other things.
In the past, I have often worked materials from the inside out, much like an elastic membrane that responds and cedes to pressure and yet, to some degree, resists it. Most of my sculptures are clearly anchored in a body image, specifically the skin. I am fascinated by the minute erotic and mechanical responses of the body. Consider the incredible delicacy and sensitivity of a nipple, which responds reflexively when brushed lightly by a hand or subjected to a jet of cold water. The image of the darker skin being stretched, pulled and bouncing back, tightening and relaxing, remains with me when I work. Similar dumb and sensual reactions can be seen when looking closely at fruit, crystals and animal forms. Vulnerability and resistance are also important aspects of my work. I'm struck by how the fragility and, in some senses, the weakness of the body, runs parallel to its strength and resistance or, in more extreme circumstances, to its ability to heal.
This recent piece, Swell, started from a single drawing of wind whipped clothesline. I saw a beautiful and mathematical symmetry inherent in the violent struggle between wind, pegs and the sheet. I've continued to work on that idea, but the piece evolved. The single clothesline became a larger structure - similar to a cradle or a canopy. Now it feels more like an outdoor room. The sheets on the line are no longer alone. They have been joined by colourful images of heavy fruit in fractal formats and perky pop spheres. Involuted, twisted and weird spaces now predominate in this piece, no doubt because I'm also attracted to the interplay and pleasures of eating, sports and love-making.
The fractal curve element and the ball element both suggest different and contrasting orders of geometry to the sheet element. If I had thought of the sheet element as being the elegant, baroque aspect of the ordinary world, then the fractal element is the "wired", techno aspect and the ball element is the "popular", plastic aspect. I have brought these elements together to reflect how the objects of our daily world negotiate the promiscuity of their different types, materials and functions. On the same line, a plain, woven cotton sheet hangs beside an aerodynamic thermoformed bleach bottle that has a cut-out to hold wooden clothes pegs, paradigms of nineteenth century technology.
In Swell, the proximity, intimacy, confusion, substitution and reversals of our parts takes over as subject. All the separate elements are swollen because they were made from temporary moulds of flexible crystal plastic blown up on a vacuum cleaner running backwards. I do expect that the whole piece, brought together in the Toronto Sculpture Garden, will be swell.
