Bronze Head Sculptures

My passion for bronze sculptures of heads was awakened in the mid-nineties while visiting the “eastern section” of the British Museum in London. I discovered a double life-size Indian Buddha head, which greatly impressed me with its simplicity and humility; yet it was so powerful.

My first head following that encounter, “Looking Out,” did not yet capture some of that expression, though I started to enjoy making very large heads. The next head after that, “Buddha Head,” was inching closer to my inspiration, featuring simple, strong outlines and enlarged, half-covered eyes. Sixteen years later, I had another go at a “Buddha head” (2), this time with more realistic and finer features, though maintaining the same inward and downward gaze.

As I realised that I was not drawn to portraiture but yearned for a more expressive or symbolic sculpture, I decided to use heads in a more inventive fashion. “Dark Side of the Face,” “Racer Man 1,” “Youth,” and “Woman with Plat” were the results of this exploration. Picasso and his ability to deconstruct the human face (“Dark Side of the Face”) , African and Cycladic sculpture (“Racer Man”) guided me on that path.

Then I reached another barrier, as I felt I had exhausted my ideas for single, non-personal heads. This gave me the impulse to create double (or multiple) heads, six of them between 1998 and 2003: “Triple Head,” “Man and Woman,” “Mother and Child 1,” “Nurturing,” “Mother and Child 2,” and “Sun and Moon.” I enjoyed the challenge of combining two heads into one sculpture or various facial features in novel ways. Through these inventive forms, I explored psychological concepts, experiences, religions (“Mother and Child 2”), and mythologies (“Sun and Moon”). I was interested in the relationships between different parts within myself, as well as the relationships between human beings, with “Mother and Child” and “Man and Woman” featuring foremost.