leaba
woven carbon steel
The large steel sculpture has a heavy top frame with a finished woven structure and implied flexibility forming an impression of an absent body. The over two metre height piece appears larger than life size in order to impose itself on the viewer and illicit memories of how a child may view a more typically sized bed.
The fabricated structure is raised up high out of reach like a throne or an altar. From below, a controlled amount of light filters through the woven grid as if in a prison cell. The steel webbing is distorted downwards suggesting a large body weight and threatens to crush those beneath. The completed bed evokes an ominous ‘quietness’. The shift from the apparently domestic to the industrial scale in combination with its material qualities intimidates the viewer.
During the research stages of this piece the artist studied the work of Polish artist Miroslaw Balka. His work revolves around the hidden memories of WWll and the Nazi occupation of Poland combined with the more recent influences of his Catholic background and his upbringing in a communist state.
