Outside Inspiration: Letting Loose on the Wall
The cool thing about wall sculpture is there are no boundaries in how it is built, how big it is (unless planned for a specific wall, then you have space considerations), or even having all the components on the same substrate or even connected. It does not have to lie flat on the space, and you do not have to have just one angle of viewing. The wall is nothing but the space upon which the art will live. Otherwise, it is sculpture like any other and can take up space in 2- or 3- dimensions in any fashion you’d like.
This piece does follow a rather level plane across a wall and everything is attached, but the components really do live in their own space with the metal bars slightly connecting them to each other. Again, we are looking at individual items brought together to make a single piece. It is a very manageable set of elements that allow for contrast and comparison that take long minutes, if not hours, to take it all in. The use of many components brought together simplified the creation while making it a more complex piece.
I keep trying to imagine this with the metal bars gone. I think they would be implied in the way the individual metal items line up, but there would be this kind of airy chaos, like debris in space. I can see this being created in polymer like this, and it would be fascinating to behold.
The ‘artist’ here, C. Jeré , was a concept rather than a person. Sort of. I found the history of this venture, which was started in 1963, rather fascinating. As stated in Wikipedia: “Curtis Jere is a compound nom-de-plume of artists Curtis Freiler and Jerry Fels. The two founders combined pieces of their own names to create the C. Jeré signature. Freiler was the production chief and Fels was head of design. Their goal was to produce “gallery-quality art for the masses”. Prior to [this], the partners built a costume jewellery business …” So, as you see, the creation of jewelry can inform sculpture, and as I’ve been saying this week, sculpture can inform jewelry as well as any other kind of art.
Just don’t let the wall define what you are doing if it doesn’t make sense. Just as you shouldn’t let a neck, wrist or ear restrict your creations, particularly if self-expression is a primary goal. Let the work wander a bit. It could be surprising.
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