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The theme of an artwork trapped within the block of
material from which it will be freed by the sculptor has
intrigued and motivated Lindquist from his years as an
art student in the late 60s to the present. This theme
is the basis of a continuing series of sculptures
Lindquist began in 1982. The “Captives,” or “Prisoners”
as he called the first pieces in this series, grew out
of Lindquist’s art historical studies and his
photographic juxtapositions of his early bowls with the
wood from which they came. The “Captives” are not only
self- portraits, but also parodies of the famous
“Prisoners” of Michelangelo, a series of sculptures of
slaves left unfinished, appearing to struggle for
release from the block of marble.
Michelangelo’s “Prisoners” were intended to function
architecturally as support elements for a tomb. The name
“Prisoners” appears to derive both from the subject of
the sculpture, the captive slave, and the sixteenth
century term for a load-bearing figurative sculpture, “prigione.”
This is the equivalent of the Greek caryatid, which is
historically a draped female figure. In addition to
showing the incomplete release of a form from its
original material, the “Prisoners” also show the tension
inherent in a sculpture whose form is constrained by
intended functionality. Lindquist’s “Captives” comment
on that duality, with the non-used functional form being
the bowl, rather than the load-bearing column.
See more of the history of the development of Mark
Lindquist's Captive Series Sculptures here:
http://lindquiststudios.com/HISTORY-MARK/captive-series.htm
Captive of the Spoon
is a seminal work in the series. Lindquist used a split
piece of white ash, as the main body of the spoon and
chainsaw/lathe carved the inner bowl, and used the cone
separation technique to suggest the bowl forms. As
with all the "Captives," the bowl or vessel struggles to
be free from the block and the statement is underscored
by the split wooden form that naturally suggests the
spoon. The viewer may think about the many ways a
spoon can be seen in the block. The spoon is symbolic of
the captive bowl seeking freedom from the handle.
Perhaps the handle and the spoon bowl are each seeking
freedom from their imprisonment within the material.
Not only do we see how the spoon
is born of the wood, but also how split wood naturally
suggests the simple spoon. The idea of the bowl and the
spoon are archetypal, yet the bowl and the spoon and the
block in one statement become a narrative about the
sculptor's struggle to find form within substance.
Celebrating these three elements together moves beyond
the spoon into the realm of sculpture.
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