motherhood
Direct carving by hand
Red sandstone
H 190 W 110 D 70 (cm)
H 6'23" W 3'60" D 2'29"
This sculpture represents the celebration of life and fecundity, not just in the sense of fertility as in the Venus of Willendorf, but also in the act of generosity, whereby women sacrifice their bodies to nurture new life. The sculpture is bigger than natural size to create a separation of the body of representation from the mere representation of a body. The technique used to carve the piece provided an opportunity to reflect on the physical aspect of creation, such that the grooves of the claw chisels found their way into the stone metaphorically representing the flesh, its imperfections and its changes while maintaining the matter – in this case the stone- without trying to change its very nature.
©2023 by Mariano Cavaleri