Review of 'Point and Pathways': Performed by Nicole Vivien Watson and Tom White
"Dancing next to the central sculpture, Nicole's twisted her arms as if tying herself in knots and echoing the shape of the wire. She moved to the music rhythm, and it felt that the sound of cracking metal came out of her joints. The dancer's body has transformed herself into a sculpture and identified with the material: from metal to flesh, from flesh into metal". Live Journal, published on the 14 of January 2024.
The philosopher Hegel claimed that, among all the arts, the first was sculpture because it can directly express an idea. A German idealist, Hegel appreciated art as a vessel of ideas. The idea, mind you, does not equal a story: most often with Hegel, it was an abstract idea such as ‘space,’ ‘time,’ ‘life’ or ‘virtue.’
Dance is the art closest to sculpture: it is a three-dimensional body/object coming to life and moving. Dance arguably can express the idea of space or life even better than sculpture.Both arts can stand for such abstract concepts as ‘vertical,’ ‘tense,’ ‘rising towards,’ or ‘aspiring for something,’ versus the concepts of ‘horizontal,’ ‘lying restfully’ and ‘being relaxed.’ In sculpture and dance, these abstract ideas are given concrete, material shape. It is very true about the work of the artist, Matt Rugg, who towards the end of his long and productive career found a new medium, thick galvanized wire, industrial material normally not used in sculpture.
Live Journal, published on the 14 of January 2024.