Alpha Gypsum.45cm x45cm x90cm.
Alpha Gypsum.45cm x45cm x90cm.
Alpha Gypsum.45cm x45cm x90cm.
Alpha Gypsum.45cm x45cm x90cm.
Alpha Gypsum.45cm x45cm x90cm.
One mission of the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon seemed to be to document the key individuals of the Enlightenment, philosophers, scientists, patriots of the new frontier of America, Diderot, Rousseau, Washington, Franklin as well as Voltaire.
The bust of the philosopher Voltaire by Houdon is recognisable rather than identifiable. A wisened, aged and wasting, figure it is a familiar face to a collective sub-conscious appearing in national art collections and history books. The sculptor explored Voltaire’s likeness in many different states, from bust to full figure, versions were made in the durable mediums of sculpture, in bronze, marble and also plaster.
With a subtle difference, this sculpture of Voltaire is also much copied and reproduced. It can best be duplicated in plaster, a medium that allows such possibilities, molds are made and multiples allowed in perpetuity, a continual link to the objects that inhabit history. Each version of Voltaire becomes a translation.
During a residency in Vietnam, a country that has held a long-standing interest for me and served as a source of inspiration, for the project a window until the rains come organised by a little blah blah, I was able to source another generation of this plaster model of Voltaire, one produced by an unknown artisan. It is the type that drawing students would use, part of a library of plaster figures, representing the legacy and symbolic force of a French colonial artistic education. These types of plaster models have also informed my previous artwork, as for the student they have become objects of my own scrutiny and enquiry.
I wanted to translate the forms and surfaces of the plaster model in to a medium that was more vulnerable and conducive to distortion, a fragile media that defied a sculptural language of permanence. Plaster became paper, volumes were transformed into planes, the three-dimensional was mapped to the two-dimensional and then reassembled with photocopiers, glue, scissors, hands and patience.
Upon return to Australia, the works in Enlightenment Figures continue the cycle of this generation of image, process, material and subsequently history. The vulnerable becomes permanently fixed by Turning Plaster in to Paper in to Plaster (Voltaire after Houdon).
Special thanks to the many people who helped me on making these works especially Elke Varga, Sue Hajdu, Kit Wise, Lachlan Petras, Justine Makdessi, Nguyen Tran Hoang, Jeph Neale, Alex Lyne and Richard Giblett.