FURTHER

(Sarah Richards with her bronze sculpture, “Inside and out”)

Running in artSPACE durban’s Main Gallery is further, featuring bronze sculptures supported by oil paintings by Sarah Richards.

Bronze is a wonderful medium, versatile, strong, durable and aesthetically pleasing. The potential is unlimited. Sarah Richards has been creating bronze sculpture for the past 10 years, mostly classical representational sculpture; birds, animals and the human form. This exhibition has taken her on an exploration to further her expertise and deepen her understanding of self and her relationship to this existence.

Richards has chosen the male body because it represents to her the aspect of herself which is intrinsically masculine in nature: organised, achieving, linear, strong, physical, athletic, yearning to be free and desperate to control her environment and her life. She has chosen specific parts of body, postures that show a gesture, but do not give away all its secrets. This external body section is essentially the same for each bronze of the edition (15 each for this body of work), being extracted from the silicon rubber mould during the lengthy casting process.

The paintings play a supportive roll, acting out the expressions of the sculptural figure studies, placing the human form in tumultuous emotion; the playfulness of the unexpected. They become a bird’s eye view, showing the drama from a different perspective. The human form is often swamped by emotional influences, swimming in the illusions of life.

Further runs until September 10. artSPACE durban is situated at 3 Millar Road (off Umgeni Road) close to the Waste Centre. More information on 031 312 0793 or visit www.artspacedurban.co.za or www.artspacedurban.blogspot.com