Sculpture

Art

My art uses plastic recovered from beaches around the world to understand how our consumer society is transforming the ocean

I am obsessed with plastic objects. I harvest them from the ocean for the stories they hold and to mitigate their ability to harm. Each object has the potential to be a message from the sea – a poem, a…

Art

Why this Rodin scholar would gladly see the back of The Thinker

I’m a Rodin scholar with a secret: I don’t like The Thinker. I’ve always been vexed by the fame of this sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) of a hyper-muscular man lost in thought. It wears a red “Make…

Art

‘Homeless Jesus’ sculpture goes viral after 911 call

Recently, a life-size bronze sculpture of Jesus, called Homeless Jesus, went viral after someone made a 911 call about a homeless man on a bench. The bronze sculpture by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz depicts Jesus, identifiable by the wounds on…

Art

Mary Wollstonecraft statue: a provocative tribute for a radical woman

A small naked female figure in silvered bronze emerges out of a swirling mass of organic matter. There is something excitingly unexpected about it all. Although not everyone shares this opinion of the recently unveiled memorial in north London to…

Art

Paula Rego: why the Portuguse artist’s work remains relevant in the fight for abortion rights

The great feminist artist Paula Rego has died at the age of 87 after a short illness. An image-maker of enormous talent, her work has been variously described as disturbing, visceral, mysterious and surreal. Paula Rego was born in Lisbon…

Art

How Yorkshire influenced the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore

When Barbara Hepworth died in 1975, fellow sculptor Henry Moore wrote an obituary in The Sunday Times with the headline, The Shaping of a Sculptor. Not only did it prominently feature their shared birthplace of Yorkshire, but the paper’s clever…

Art

How whiteness was invented and fashioned in Britain’s colonial age of expansion

Fashion is political — today as in the past. As Britain’s Empire dramatically expanded, people of all ranks lived with clothing and everyday objects in startlingly different ways than generations before. The years between 1660 and 1820 saw the expansion…