Sand sculpture is a battle with compromise. You get an idea into your head and start working. So many factors will come into play while you steer your work, making you change direction and you usually end up far from where you expected to be. The sand, weather and your own mind set can be things you need to fight and hopefully triumph over if you hope to be happy with the sculpture.
When I'm asked what my favourite sculpture was that I made the answer usually comes as a surprise. What I'm usually looking for in a sculpture is one that I can't think of anything I would have done any differently if I had another stab at it. That every grain of sand has a purpose in getting the idea across that I was trying to present. Well for now this sculpture is it. Made all the way back in 2003 in Roskilde, Denmark. It has all the metrics. I have made others since that I also like but each one has this to measure up to.
There is a Viking museum in Roskilde and that was the site for this competition, as well as the solo sculptures there was a great centerpiece demo made by a group led by a Russian and Danish sculptor. That is the big lad in the chair in the background.
The Theme of the project was of course Viking mythology and we could choose from several stories to inspire our sculptures. I went with the story of the 3 Norns.
The story goes that there were these three female beings called Urd 'What once was' Verdandi 'what is coming into being' and Skuld 'What shall be' and they spun the web of destiny which holds us at it's center. (I'm paraphrasing a bit)
I represented the Norns as simple forms with a hint of Norse about them like the bow of a ship. Each with different textures depicting past, present and future.
Each of them acted as a support for a web like structure which was a difficult structure to carve without collapse and at the center was held a simple sphere which I meant to represent life and all that good stuff.
Done
Visually it was a very simple piece and that is what I most liked about it. I think I was able to remove all elements that were unnecessary and be left with a purer sculpture.
It turned out to be a very small sculpture on a big pile of sand. Even though it was a complex carve I finished early as I didn't want to add anymore detail which would have been superfluous to the piece. The organisers were not too happy that I didn't carve all the way to the ground but I stood my ground and said it was complete.
This was a first for me, to have a complete sculpture, There was nothing to add or subtract that would have made me feel any happier with the piece. I have finished many sculptures but I have never felt like I 'completed' one up to the point where I could walk away happy. For me it needed no gilding of the Lilly to make it any better.
Sculptural biology
It is difficult to express exactly how this piece made me feel and maybe I am the only one to feel it but I think it was a strong self contained sculpture. I borrowed a term from biological systems called 'Irreducible Complexity' to try and explain it. (Maybe badly) In biology it is the idea that certain biological systems cannot evolve by successive small modifications to pre-existing functional systems through natural selection (Thanks Wikipedia) and is central to the creationists concept of intelligent design. For me as a sand sculptor it is when every element has a place and by removing one of them the whole piece will collapse. Just so you know, I am not a creationist when it comes to biology or even sculpture for that matter. I think, as with Biology there is a evolution of ideas as we are all affected by concepts coming in from all around us but, with this piece i felt there was thing making decisions. Maybe even me.
The one element I had second thoughts about is the spiral forms on top but, i think that even though they may not be integral to the structural design they give the piece a sense of direction and movement to counteract the stillness of the center.
In 2017 I revisited this piece and made a second version in cement and i am happy the piece now lives on in a permanent material.
After this nice project Niall Magee and I flew straight to St. Petersburg, Russia and as a major contrast I made my least favourite sculpture ever. But this sculpture was still happily in my mind and as we had to leave before the prize giving I was happy to hear that i was given the sculptors choice award.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
As a new test of ways to get people interacting with my posts I am adding a Bounty of 1 SBD to this post. As well as hoping to get a few more views I also hope that it will be able to help me reward my loyal followers more than my voting power will allow. So if you want a chance to share the pot please leave a comment below.
Textual Intercourse - Short Film
Falling Asleep (Remastered) - sand sculpture
Sculpting in nomansland ( contains nudity) - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon.
@ammonite