Intersections - Project2

Low Metamorphosis

by Ruth Barker

Metamorphosis is a key image of storytelling - whether mythic, historical, or poetic. The gesture of transformation - from past into present, from clay into ceramic, from object into artefact, from unknown into known - is often a change in imagination as well as form, function, and perspective. In mythic metamorphoses we see the significance of symbolically changing states, identities, and conditions. In poetic metamorphoses we feel the resonance of changing images through metaphor, simile and mimesis. In sculpture we can use the properties of physical metamorphoses through casting, melting, firing, to likewise shift our understanding and interpretation. Low is a statement of the not-obvious, the un-mentioned, the quiet, or the deep rather than the high. It is the murmur rather than the shout, and the sound of re-interpretation rather than iconoclasm.