Point to Point / Five On The Floor Original Sketches

One the aspects of making sculpture for me has always been the point at which, sculpture meets the floor. It is an aspect of three dimensional artworks that can often be omitted or at least attended to last of all. The artist Constantin Brancusi resolved this issue by extending his sculpture to the ground via plinths that remain a resting point (and stopping point) for the sculpture and yet, remain an integral part of the object's overall aesthetic. Many artists since have dispensed with plinths altogether, in fact, artworks that inhabit whole areas of many contemporary galleries, have become the norm.

Using a plinth as starting point for an object designed form the ground up would, for any artists of today, appear archaic, old fashioned, out of date and yet; there are so many art objects that require a clever and subtle resolution to this problem: particularly in smaller sculptures that can be lost completely in the wrong surroundings. Indeed, I once saw someone step on a small artwork that was concealed by the visual impact of its surrounding floor area.

This would suggest to me, that whether the maker of that particular object was concerned or not, some kind of visual resolution is required. I exclude the work of many Conceptual, Post Conceptual, Post Post Conceptual and performance artists here as they may well have seen the act of destruction by the poor unwitting spectator as part of the piece - indeed a resolution of the piece!

Above are my first attempts at this for a series of sculptures made up of several parts that are an extension of the ground upon which they sit. The two earlier posts on this blog show the resulting maquettes that were made from these sketches. The first drawings for this group of sculptural ideas began in 1983-4 under the title "Point To Point" The new collective title "Five On The Floor" was added recently. The first sculptures in this series of ideas can be seen on this website in the Old Projects Gallery.