About Me
when I was very young all i remember was drawing endlessly. later, running around in the bush, climbing mountains and jumping through waterfalls. suddenly, i found myself undone, in hospital with what felt like years trapped in a prison. but I was shown x-rays of my bones and it lit a deep, deep fascination in me. i thought we must be made of light, not bone. turns out i was right. i pored over anatomy books looking at the interconnectedness of muscle, sinew and bones. i spent weeks, days, months, years, drawing the monumental sculptures of the renaissance, tracing the purity of physical perfection in terms of symmetry, balance and movement. much later, and after a a great training in renovating old industrial buildings, i became intrigued with how far i could push materials.....and all of that led to me becoming a sculptor.
the fascination with power, wings and mythical beasts probably comes from the feeling of being trapped. a profound search for physical freedom.
i needed magical escapes.
uttarayan foundation, gujarat, india.
uttarayan foundation, gujarat, india.
zellig, birmingham, uk.
provenance
I never studied art conventionally although I had the good fortune to discover sculpture through a great teacher at high school in Africa. Dear Mr Mike Muller. That and reading Rodin's biography did it for me. What better job, I thought, than making giant sculptures for cities......certainly beats getting a proper job, something I have endeavoured to avoid my entire life.
Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.
But as a sculptor, I reckon I have at least until 80 before the 'they' decide. Meanwhile the love affair continues.....
specialities
I can project manage, create realistic budgets & deliverables. I weld, bend iron, cast almost anything, draw almost anything, hang anything, build anything and design anything. Not always with my own delicate hands, of course, but with recourse to any number of other talented artists, engineers, architects and craftsmen who work with me.
The Imaginary Beings Art Collective
As Arundahti Roy puts it so eloquently: "Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars,their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: we be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing".
It began as an idea that sprang from a coincidence. My friend Zsi Chmera told me about a book by Jorge Luis Borges called The imaginary Beings. We were both intrigued by it and she was to create his creatures in her inimitable way out of paper montage and print making and I would then create the menagerie in steel. At the same time another good friend Carolina Maggio was invited by the Jorge Luis Borges Center in Buenos Aires to do an exhibition of painting. Our friend and muse, dancer Marga Zafrilla Olaya helped consolidate our thoughts and out of this was born The Imaginary Beings Collective. We began creating art events, often for no purpose other than the sheer joy of collaborating on something we had not tried before, sometimes because a great venue presented itself and other times simply to open our exhibitions. Many experiments and gorgeous experiences later our numbers keep growing and we continue to create art events all over Europe. Our last being in Portugal and the next in Milan. For more information visit: www.imaginarybeings.org
Zsi and I never completed the collaboration since she left this world recently in a hot air balloon. I'd laugh if I wasn't crying so much. But I will complete our ideas one day. In the meantime look at her beautiful work here: www.zsichimera.com.
Hobbies
Wondering how best to bring up a child without leaving too many marks. Surfing. Secretly writing poetry. Inventing new juices. Strimming grass, looking at the sky and wondering. a lot about love, life and the navigation of such awesome things.