SCULPTURAL OBJECTS

Paddler and Rower grew out of the vertical kayak works, but they shift the question from balance to absence. In the kayak pieces, the boat is lifted from the horizontal and held in tension by the paddles. Here the body remains, the paddle or oars remain, but the boat itself has disappeared.

The figures are caught in the action of moving across water, yet there is no water and no vessel to carry them. The gesture continues after its practical purpose has gone. In Paddler, the figure leans into a long double paddle, almost willing movement into existence. In Rower, the body pulls against oars that stretch outward like lines of force, but there is nothing beneath him except the platform.

The irony came from the phrase “paddle your own boat” - and the simple fact that there is no boat. The works carry that contradiction lightly. They are humorous, but not only jokes. They are about effort without support, direction without vessel, and the stubborn persistence of a body still trying to move.

A later variation of Rower pushed this further by breaking the oars. The act of rowing remained, but the means of rowing had failed. What is left is posture, strain and intention. A figure still organised around movement, even when movement has become impossible.