In the Mold of the Fathers: Objects of Sculpture, Subjects of Legacy

The essay interrogates forms and processes the author uses in her sculptures. It examines specifically works that were driven by feelings of responsibility to heritage and that led to a return to the self as a focus in her sculpture. Exploring work inspired by images and creations of Lucian Freud and Sigmund Freud, it investigates formal, visual, and sculptural devices such as the circle, the edge, and the condensed relief format. It asks how the condensed form became relevant to her artistic practice as a symbolic device, how her relief format is guided by content—the images and persons depicted—and how that loaded content in turn provokes a two-sided, condensed form. In particular, the essay inquires into how the author’s interest in the relief format produced an interest in portraiture and hence family, and how, simultaneously, the need to touch base with feelings of home and family further drove her interest in the relief form.