The Stockade Sculptures + Stockade Works on Paper

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The Stockade Sculptures

(For the Siege of Gaza)

The Stockade Sculptures are sculptures of necessity, made for these troubling times. They recall the time of childhood fortresses and defensive bulwarks spontaneously constructed with whatever materials there were to hand. As adult contemporary sculptures it was personally imperative that the sculptures emanated a visual scent, that they reeked of intimidation and violence. Again, the materials that are used are of the found and scavenged variety that by design further added to a sense of desperation and the absolute need for staunch resilience in order to defend oneself, one's loved ones, territory and the moral principals that one stands for. They are sculptures that I hope visually function in resonating the qualities of a psychological defence, a mode of striving to survive in the face absurd odds and the inevitability of one's own death. My wish was and is, for the sculptures to provide clues that also reveal a code of optimism and a visual keynote for contemporary survival in a world of escalating violence and social contempt.

Galvin Harrison, Copenhagen 2017