Fluid sculptural forms evoke the wild, tumultuous movement of the sea or else, the uncanny stillness of a dense forest, both creating veil-like surfaces which alternately obscure and reveal the figures caught between. These latest works by Richard Stone reflect on the artist’s spontaneous sculptural process in relation to the physical materiality of clay, marble and bronze to explore wider perceived dichotomies between artistic conceit and authenticity, strength and vulnerability, resistance and surrender. Through deconstructed figures and sensual, curvaceous shapes, the knight divided, the artist’s third solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, considers art’s ability to not just challenge convention, but to also present bold, new visions for the future.
For Stone, the creative process begins and ends with the material. He works with his hands, allowing his thoughts and feelings to organically filter through his gestures until a shape or form begins to emerge. As such, the works possess a compelling sense of rawness and intimacy that unsettles the historic monumentality of sculpture and invites the viewer to form a more embodied, emotional connection to the work. The title of this latest exhibition makes reference to this process by personifying the notion of conflict. The knight - conventionally a masculine, heroic figure - is literally deconstructed in Stone’s work, appearing in brief glimpses of limbs that are then engulfed by swathes of coloured clay or marble, but we can also understand the tumultuous scenes as visual representations of psychological states or rather, transformation.
