Monism

This was my third stone carving, the first being for Triangulum, a National Trust commission. Monism was entirely hand carved, mainly using a claw and a flat chisel for finishing. The sculpture is an exercise in interlocking forms in stone and is therefore abstract. The forms within the sculpture draw from the deconstructed chain links in Eightfold and Laocoonic Labyrinth. I wanted to make a carving that used a modular form which locked together yet also had the flow of the welded chain link sculptures. The inspiration for this sculpture and Dualism is the interlocking iron, stone and wood sculptures of Eduardo Chillida. Unlike his there is no piercing through the form, this conceptually refers to the title and distinction but interrelation through an indivisible bond. Due to the nature of the stone and the geometric forms carved into it I wanted the surface to be smooth which involved many hours using diamond pads.