06 Kikoy

Kikoy and cotton remnant 2004
Bronze h37 x w29 x d30 cm

I tried the same technique again with my next bronze head.  This time, I wrapped the central core with my father’s Kikoy, a sarong-like piece of fabric worn by Kenyan men around their waists.  My father had worn one instead of a dressing gown.

I twisted a long piece of cotton fabric from my remnants box and wound this around the top of the head to give it the appearance of wearing a turban, tying it off in a large knot on the top.

I wanted this second head to be larger and to show more form, so I made a better job of shaping the central core.  The burn out was successful with the bronze showing all the wonderful flowing folds of the Kikoy, its tassels and the twisted cotton remnant.  What I hadn’t bargained for, was the weight of the sculpture.

Traditionally bonzes are hollow.  It makes sense to be careful with an expensive material which is paid for by weight.  Another consideration is the physical properties of bronze itself, which limit the size of a sculpture.  Head: Kikoy is of course hollow – the shaped central core made sure of that – however, the turban and the knot had not been part of this core and had therefore filled with bronze and become extremely heavy.  (They did look wonderful though!)

I exhibited this head at the Butley Mills Studios Open Weekend in 2007 where it generated a lot of discussion.  The feedback being that it was both mysterious and reminiscent of the Tuareg, a nomadic pastoral tribe in Northern and Western Africa.  This head is actually about my father who I didn’t get to know properly until I was into my early twenties.  He spent most of his life in Africa working for the Colonial Service.  It was therefore important for me to pay tribute to this African legacy in the sculpture.  I remember him as an intensely honourable man, rather stern, and not a little scary to me when I was a little girl.  When I’d grown a bit older, I realised he cared deeply for his family, he just found it difficult to show it.

Sadly today a wrapped face like this would be more likely to bring up terrible memories of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York which changed the world, and the terrifying actions of ISIS fighters during the war in Syria.