Welded steel, 2002.
Looked at as a bust, the sculpture gives a goddess head and shoulders and no face. The head is a cylinder with a dark domed cap, tipped toward the viewer, and its open end faces us where a face would be. The pale inside of the tube is what we meet. A portrait bust presents a face to be read, and this one presents an opening to look into.
Below the head a broad curved band sweeps around a pale oval, and in a bust that is the line of the shoulders and chest. At the right, sheets of metal fold and overlap like cloth falling from the shoulder. The steel is bent into soft shapes throughout, with rolled edges and gathered folds, and the warm light surfaces rest on a dark wedge that serves as the base.
The likeness is carried by posture and mass: the sweep of the shoulders, the fall of the cloth and the tilt of the head. The head is the darkest and most compact element, with a dark cap at the top and warm metal beneath it. The figure is weighted at the top and open at the front, and she holds the pose without a face.
