12 Derek

Derek 2010
Bronze h47 x w59 x d40 cm

I’ve always worried about doing commissions.  There’s that constant uncomfortable pressure and doubt that the end product will not be liked.

This bronze was a commission from my good friend Derek Chambers, who asked me to make a head for him.  In response, I said that I’d be happy to do this if he gave me complete freedom to do what I liked.  Luckily he said yes.

To get the ball rolling, I asked him to give me a good photograph of himself, head and shoulders only, three of his old shirts, plus some feathers.  It was important to me that the materials burnt out were his.  I had just completed an MA in the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the Sainsbury Centre and learned about practices and beliefs that I thought would be fun to incorporate into Derek’s sculpture.

I started by placing the shirts inside one another, then cut slits into the seams under the arms to allow the sleeves of the inside shirts to be pulled through to the outside.  Each set of sleeves needed to be below the other so that the shirt now looked like it had six arms.  This intriguing new garment dressed the central core which I’d shaped into a head, following the slightly turned position shown in the photograph Derek had sent me.  I modelled and pinned the fabric into place with dressmaking pins, and pulled the sleeves round to the back where they were knotted.

Finally, the feathers were cut into small pieces and pinned onto the shirt.  It never ceases to amaze me how different elements become one when cast into bronze.  The process of burning out the shirts and feathers had fused them together to make a final bonze head.  It was not a true portrait of Derek, but rather a representation that holds his trace from the original materials.  In West African society, the bronze medium, together with layers of clothing, are a sign of high status (as are the feathers in Tahitian society).  It’s these ‘representations’ that can be seen in the Ife and Benin sculptures of this area, rather than the kind of portraits we’re accustomed to in Western art, which have historically prized verisimilitude over all.

The method of bronze casting used by the artists at Butley is similar to the casting process seen in these West African areas.  The end result is one, unique sculpture.  Still, the vagaries of the process are evident in Head: Derek in the random holes which have exposed the inside of the head.  This is where the bronze couldn’t run.  I see these gaps as physical representations of the marks, lines and scars life leaves on a face, exposing the inside to the outside.  A type of vulnerability.

There is also the intended big hole at the top of the head/collar of the shirts, which mirrors the holes found in some of the Benin and Ife heads, where a large intricately carved elephant’s tusk was placed.

The sleeves of the three shirts were drawn tightly back to end in three large knots at the back of the head.  One for Derek’s wife and the other two for his identical twin sons.  These knots symbolise the love and everlasting ties of a family, they are like arms entwined around his neck.