BESIDE MYSELF
Ted Bieler
May 17 – September 15, 2010
Ted Bieler, BESIDE MYSELF, 5 cast aluminum heads on individual wooden benches each approximately 40” H x 20” W
Artist Statement
BESIDE MYSELF extends an invitation to sit down on any of five wood benches next to larger than life-size three-dimensional images of the human head cast in aluminium.
Each head occupies half a bench, inviting a relaxed conversation, a civilized reflection, an intimacy. Each head acts as though a different part of ourselves had been cut into and exposed. Our shifting multiple profile selves, our southern Ontario rolling landscape selves, our shimmering rectilinear selves -- each dissolving into the other in a conversation of cross-references and allusions, sculpture to sculpture and sculpture to participant.
Sculpture occupies the same space as our bodies, confronting and reflecting us physically, psychologically and gesturally. The fabrication of the patterns from which the heads are cast employs an action of successive division and re-assembly with gestures that generate both separation and symmetry: right eye/left eye, right ear/left ear, nose, chin, Adam’s apple. Here, in a dialogue on a bench, we are once again at the centre of a gesture of reunion in the act of mirroring and recognizing ourselves.
