Wall Flowering is the second in my series of abstract and intuitive limited edition bronze relief sculptures. A series of sculptural mind maps, translating my subconscious thought into cranked clay relief and cast in bronze using the lost wax process.

Ben Southwell, Wall Flowering

27 W x 35.5 H x 6.5 D cm  |  Bronze relief sculpture | £1,600 | Read more

Wall Flowering

Bronze relief wall sculpture

35.5 H x 27 W x 6.5 D cm

Edition of 9

Shop

£1,600

Wall Flowering’s origin

I sculpted Wall Flowering with my left hand after two years of hand surgery to my dominant hand. Like a roadside flower’s tenuous but determined grip on life, a mangled beauty emerges a into light from the depths of personal and cultural memory.

Following the path

I surrounded a deep central shaft with four shallow holes, marking the cardinal compass points. Then, I formed a patterned ribbon around the first tracing a path around the surrounding holes. As it grew, so did its resonance to ancient patterns, tracing an unbroken path, extending to leaf form points7th Century Anglo Saxon. Enveloping, exploring; binding the core and defining the space outlying space.

Establishing a theme that is developed further in Directional Disorder, sprays of flower forms erupted to east and west with five lobed petals14th century BCE Egyptian. Their roots set in multi-lobed forms borrowed from Slingshot, the predecessor of Wall Flowering.

At the poles

At its southern tip a form derived from a Roman shield design2nd century BCE emerged. Although perhaps it’s more reminiscent of a pair of shears (or a vulva for that matter). Subsequently, I filled the available void with a form reminiscent of a calcareous sponge.

To the north, I topped a central quadruple twistSyro-Hittite with a recurrence of the southern form. Finally, I stretched out S shape arms decorated with echoes of sponge form in a formation inspired by octopus designs of Mycenaean pottery.