I have long been interested in mitosis or the division of cells as an alternative to sexual reproduction for life's continuance. The very first work to express this idea was the fibreglass 

 (1987). This notion was then explored in the lead bodycase works of the mid-eighties and continued in the single skinned, solid cast works 

 (2004). This idea of a connected, but also separated, body doubling that questions the relation between original and copy, artist and model, image and referent, self and other has continued in these later 

These works are not representations: they attempt to establish a human space 

 space by using the familiar language of our built world. Some originated by fusing works in a kind of symbiosis, and some began with me holding a pattern and being scanned. Others emerged from playing around with two maquettes and seeing how they might fit together.

My thinking has been influenced by so many things, especially Michelangelo’s many versions of the 

 which, in evoking the tragedy of a mother holding the dead body of her son, becomes the inverse of the artist trying to animate stone.

Bodies come out of bodies, and while we might hold that we are free individuals capable of infinite choice, we are also cells in a bigger system – social beings defined by our intimate relations. In the one finding another, continuance becomes possible.

Double Blockworks

, 2017, cast iron, 337 × 42.5 × 37.5 cm. Photograph by Stephen White, London.

Reflect

, 2018, cast iron, 220.5 × 42.3 × 53.2 cm. Photograph by Stephen White, London.

Clasp III

, 2018, cast iron, 231.5 × 56.5 × 43.5 cm. Photograph by Stephen White, London.

Clasp I

, 2018, cast iron, 186.2 × 44.4 × 60.1 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Assemble 

, 2019, cast iron, 186.3 × 65.8 × 48.1 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Save

, 2021, cast iron, 166.9 × 71.4 × 56.3 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Shelter

, 2021, cast iron, 186.3 × 66.2 × 44.4 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Nest

, 2021, cast iron, 176.8 × 79.3 × 47.2 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Bridge

, 2021, cast iron, 188.8 × 61.4 × 41.4 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.


, 2021, cast iron, 178.1 × 42.6 × 58 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.


Sidle

, 2021, cast iron, 186.2 × 55.2 × 41.3 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Loop

, 2021, cast iron, 35 × 199 × 90 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.


Moor

, 2023, cast iron, 184.6 × 66.5 × 49 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Ally

, 2024, cast iron, 189.8 × 55 × 47 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.

Double Blockworks

Related content

Body Field

Body Field

Body Space Time