Encountering Sculpture as Image

Brâncuşi and Materiality
Ella McCartney
‘Encountering Sculpture as Image’

The focus of this moving image work is the role of photography in Brâncuşi’s practice, and in turn the relationship between object and image in his work.

Photography was used by Brâncuşi to document his work. The images could be reproduced and distributed in postcard form, which he did in the early 1900s. However, most of his photography transcends this and like other aspects of his practice, he tests the process to open up new possibilities for his work.

To make this piece I have used a time-based medium and digital technology as a way of visually exploring images and objects associated with Brâncuşi’s practice. The process has been experimental and exploratory, which I connect to the approach taken by Brâncuşi when he first started to use photography: providing an unfamiliar method to examine an object, its surface and limits.

A sculpture can be seen from many perspectives. We can walk around it, it has a physical relationship to our own bodies, and light interacts with the surface as we move. A photograph of sculpture disrupts this form of encounter, which is what I want this moving image work to test.