He who wishes to experience gratitude from his contemporaries, must adjust his pace to theirs. But great things are never produced in this way. And he who wants to do great things must direct his gaze to posterity, and in firm confidence elaborate his work for coming generations. No doubt, the result may be that he will remain quite unknown to his contemporaries, and comparable to a man who, compelled to spend his life upon a lonely island, with great effort sets up a monument there, to transmit to future sea-farers the knowledge of his existence.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
I’ve made art in Edmonton for more than twenty-five years, exploring sculpture, photography, design, illustration, and writing, in a spirit of free and easy creative wandering, allowing my intuition to stimulate new directions.
In the beginning of my career, my focus was on creating abstract sculptures using welded scrap steel. The foundation for these works was the cubist tradition of Gonzales, Picasso, Smith, Caro, and Hide; however, my own inclinations pointed my sculpture in the direction of architecture, furniture, musical instruments, and the like, conscious of how non-representational objects can relate to the human body.
I’ve used welded scrap steel in my works for its many practical advantages, including its strength and permanence, its malleability and wide vocabulary of readymade forms, and its eminent suitability, as a ‘low’ material, for transformation into ‘high’ art. I’ve explored the potential of this medium for figuration, and created a number of works on allegorical, historical, or mythical themes. These have included busts, figures, equestrian statues, and an extended series of sculptures based on the Hindu god Ganesha.
Despite the material preparation required to make any object, improvisation and spontaneity are a fundamental aspect of my art. My crushed can series sprang from a serendipitous trip to the scrap yard in search of sculpture supplies. These works were subjected to artistic scrutiny and selected from hundreds found on the recycling heap, and hung unaltered on the wall. Despite being random creations of a mindless process, they each have a unique character that sets them apart from one another and, most crucially, they each ‘work’ as art.
Clement Greenberg famously told Anthony Caro in 1959, “If you want to change your art, change your materials.” Working with soldered brass introduced such a change in my art. Compared to my steel sculptures, my abstract brass assemblages have a more intimate scale, and the inclusion of animal forms often imparts a surreal character to the sculptures. My figurative brass works have often taken the form of wearable masks and helmets that, like my figurative steel work, venture into archetypal and mythological themes.
Ryan McCourt 