Lenythegreat’s Weblog

1. Decribe one of Han Sai Por’s sculptures.

Han Sai Por is a well-known Singapore artist born on 19th July 1943 who has created numerous sculptures carved from stones like marble and granite, injecting life into figurative forms and organic shapes.

Pls refer to this website to take a look at the sculpture that I have a chosen:
http://www.hansaipor.com/sculpture/glass.html 

         The second of her series of public glass sculptures, Shimmering Pearls 2 is situated in Beijing, China since its installation there in 2005. The hollow balls of glass are representative of pearls. Each of the big flashed-glass balls are rooted to the cement ground of the installation area with the support of slightly wavy metal stems. The symmetrically round balls, in comparison to the thin metal supports are much bigger, which gives viewers a sense of heaviness. At the same time, the wavy outline of the metal supports gives the illusion that the glass balls are swimming out of the ground, implying movement and determination (heavy balls swim against gravity). The balls are of different distance from the ground, and when the balls are seen together, it seems like the whole group is swimming against gravity in unity.
         In terms of colour, the balls are of different combinations of bright and eye-catching colours. In 1 ball itself, there are a few complementary colours covering the glass ball by layers, and the layers are freeform– no fixed boundaries. The metal support of the balls are metallic and shiny.  The overall texture of the sculpture is smooth and slippery, giving me a sense that there is no air resistance going against the movement of the pearls.

2. Describe one of Antony Gormley’s installations, in relation to the concept of land art. 

           Antony Gormley was born in 1950s in London, and he is commonly known for his interest in the human condition and the use of the body as a place of memory and transformation. His sit specific work entitled Time Horizon dated 2006 is found in Catanzoro, Italy. It consists of 100 cast-iron bodyfroms distributed over 8.5 hectares of Roman remains. The site on which the installation is situated included a forum, amphitheatre, acropolis and a giant orchard of 3 thousand olive trees.
            The human forms appear to be slowly emerging from the ground at fixed intervals, from the head of the figure to be the only visible part of the sculpture to the whole figure exposed on 2.75m high plinths. The work faces in all directions, but never at each other. The sculptures are cast out of a single template, which resembles a man. The features (e.g. eyes, mouth, ears) are simplified, giving a sense that its organic shapes are in harmony with the environment around it.The cast-iron has rusted over time due to environmental factors, leaving parts of the works with green moss and brown tones of rust growing onto it. The sculpture appears to be rough in texture. The simplified nature, relatively rough texture and the earthly colours of the sculptures seem to be linked to the concept of land art, whereby both the landscape and the artwork are inextricably linked. The sculpture is left to change (e.g. rust etc) under natural conditions. Other examples of land art include Gormley’s Another Place (1997) , an outdoor installation of 100 cast iron figures spread over a section of Crosby Beach in Liverpool. The figures ae also affected by the environment that they are placed in. Depending on the rising and decreasing tides, the figures will rust levels by levels. The sculptures interact with the sea, and engages with the movement and stillness brought about by the tides.

3. Compare and contrast the works by the artists, paying attention to their concerns in art.

In Han Sai Por’s Shimmering Pearls 2 and Gormley’s Time Horizon, both sculptures emphasize the idea of nature. Shimmering Pearls expresses the idea of pearls made by nature, and Time Horizon is very closed linked to nature (sculpture interacts with the surroundings) which eventually changes the physical appearance of the work. Also, both works consists of many single sculptures put together. Both works also show the concept of time. Shimmering Pearls 2 emphasize day and night (the work lights up at night). Time Horizon has different interpretation of time in the same space :living human time of the viewer, biological time of the trees surrounding it, geological time of the earth, industrial time of mechanism production.

However, Shimmering Pearls 2 is relatively smaller in scale compared to Time Horizon’s 8.5 hectare installation area. Time Horizon has a stronger emphasis of land art as compared to Shimmering Pearls 2. Also, Shimmering Pearls 2 is more about the existence of physical objects like oysters and pearls, while Time Horizon is more universal-that is more abstract when it comes to the interpretation of the work.