Taking a significant amount of influence from the sculptures of
Alberto Giacometti, I set out to construct a few wire sculptures further emphasising the
Modular Man. This time, I chose to distort the figures, as if they could still be living in the forms they have taken, however frail they appear. The extent of their bodily distortions were heavily based on the physical descriptions of various mythological creatures. Many creatures if myth possess unusually human qualities, even in form. If not, they are often at least representative of a certain aspect to human nature. Furthermore, the application of the 'utopian' entity was deliberate, tracing its point back to Da Vinci's
Vitruvian Man and the mathematically perfect body. With this, I hope to explictly express the notion of perfection with regards to a concept like the human body as something purely arbitrary.
When I was starting this, I considered the possibility of setting up 'genders' between Modulars, since many mythical creatures were often specified as either strictly male or female in form. However, later on, I would take away my focus from this and allow myself to let the identity of the subject's figure become more apparent as it made progress.
Two of the mythical creatures I referenced for this project were from Malay folklore: the Langsuir and Manananggal.
I wanted to be very direct with my construction of the wire sculptures, so I bent the wires into shape with my own hands and rarely used tools, only for when cutting lengths. For reasons I cannot entirely determine, I find a simplistic joy in shaping the wire as I have done. The results were equally pleasing for me.
'Langsuir' (2010)
'Manananggal' (2010)
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