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encountered Mayan art in his teens – in fact it was the first ancient sculptural tradition of interest to him. Soon after his arrival in Belize, he was taken to the Mayan site of Lamanai, where his guide’s knowledge combined with the extraordinary and mysterious sense of place, gave purpose to his sculptural brief. Impressed by the structures and the stelae dedicated to ancient Mayan princes and divine rulers, he carried the references to the Mayan world – to its history and cosmology - in his mind as he worked on his sculpture.
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His initial concept for Belize was to work with two stones to create, in juxtaposition, an inner space, a shelter and a sanctuary to nurture freedom and independence. In reality, he had to change his ideas and was pushed in a new direction. This he found liberating and so he worked completely spontaneously. Every inch of the block had to be carved as the stone was not pre-cut to his
The visit to Lamanai before we started our work was revelational. There, as we walked in the jungle glades among the incredible stones with our guide describing layers of history, translating symbols, telling tales of divine princes and rulers, and with the great stepped pyramid rising into the clouds, my thoughts began to converge and some idea and seed of a sculpture began to germinate.
On the ground, I found a fragment of mirror which became the catalyst for my working process, and which I later set in the surface of the disc. Recently a colleague wrote to me that my piece reminded him of the sculpture of Chacmool in the museum of Archaeology in Mexico City - that the central bowl was like an abstract rephrasing of the dish he holds out for blood or rain or sacrifice.
Right now this new work feels to me like a synthesis or concentration of many elements of Central American sculpture that have inspired me over the years. I hope it evokes a sense of timelessness and reflection, connecting past and future and both to the present.
COLIN FIGUE
specifications. He kept the forms bold and simple due to the nature and friability of the stone. He created a huge symmetrical base composed of extremely slight and subtle curves. On top of this rests a rounded platform, which suggests both the Mayan calendar and a sacrificial altar. The platform descends into a large spherical bowl shape, which implies a vessel, womb- like, suggesting mother earth germinating. The surface is clean and smoothly worked, revealing the beauty and purity of the stone. Perfect forms are in equilibrium and balance with a strong sense of humanity. The simple powerful volumes in this timeless sculpture have weight and the force of gravity, and evoke the ancient Mayan world.
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