Eye Cue (2015)
Zebra Soapstone, Acrylic, Alabaster and Slate
Eye Cue is the second part of a trio of site-specific sculptures exploring the sensory experience of life in West Dean House. The interplay of eye and hand is the subject of this piece, planned for the Library, in a space that used to be the Billiards Room. The eye is modelled on the feline shape of the eye of Tilly Losch, wife of Edward James. The hand is carved as a pure white alabaster shell, set on a black slate base. This reference is taken from the Norman Bel Geddes film Dance of the Hands (1930), where Tilly Losch’s hands are featured, curling and flexing against a dark background.
The three stone elements are joined by a length of acrylic rod, a visually delicate yet rigid material that links the eye and hand while allowing them to remain incomplete fragments. In this sculpture the acrylic serves as a notional conduit for information, taken in through the front of the eye, and passed down via the hand to be inscribed on the slate below. The acrylic rod, as it travels away from the eye, therefore takes on its own role as scribing tool, and the slate base becomes a surface ready to receive information taken in by the eye.
The optical qualities of acrylic also call to mind a prism, capable of splitting light into its component parts. In this case the black and white of the zebra soapstone is ‘refracted’ as it moves down the rod into the separate tones of the alabaster and slate.
An awareness of the room’s previous purpose began to resonate as the sculpture took shape. The acrylic rod can be seen as a billiard cue and the slate base references the slate used for billiard table tops.
Zebra Soapstone, Acrylic, Alabaster and Slate
Eye Cue is the second part of a trio of site-specific sculptures exploring the sensory experience of life in West Dean House. The interplay of eye and hand is the subject of this piece, planned for the Library, in a space that used to be the Billiards Room. The eye is modelled on the feline shape of the eye of Tilly Losch, wife of Edward James. The hand is carved as a pure white alabaster shell, set on a black slate base. This reference is taken from the Norman Bel Geddes film Dance of the Hands (1930), where Tilly Losch’s hands are featured, curling and flexing against a dark background.
The three stone elements are joined by a length of acrylic rod, a visually delicate yet rigid material that links the eye and hand while allowing them to remain incomplete fragments. In this sculpture the acrylic serves as a notional conduit for information, taken in through the front of the eye, and passed down via the hand to be inscribed on the slate below. The acrylic rod, as it travels away from the eye, therefore takes on its own role as scribing tool, and the slate base becomes a surface ready to receive information taken in by the eye.
The optical qualities of acrylic also call to mind a prism, capable of splitting light into its component parts. In this case the black and white of the zebra soapstone is ‘refracted’ as it moves down the rod into the separate tones of the alabaster and slate.
An awareness of the room’s previous purpose began to resonate as the sculpture took shape. The acrylic rod can be seen as a billiard cue and the slate base references the slate used for billiard table tops.
