Sculptomatic 2 was made for Kunstvereniging Diepenheim in Holland and shown in the same month as Sculptomatic 1. Because the two works were being exhibited simultaneously, simply rebuilding the machinery of Sculptomatic 1 was neither possible nor particularly appealing. Instead, the second work was made entirely on site, using the gallery’s unusual vertical architecture as part of its construction.
As before, local participants were given images drawn from a collection of 500 sculptures containing holes and asked to model them in clay. Here the material was a heavy, locally sourced brick clay, whose colour and dense physical quality gave the forms a different character. The Dutch participants also approached the task rather differently: interpretations were often looser, less formal and occasionally wandered off script altogether.
A Dexion ‘dumb waiter’ carried the freshly made objects to an upper level of the gallery, where they were transferred onto a motorised conveyor belt projecting over the main space like a diving board. From there, one by one, they travelled to a point five metres above the floor before dropping into a large vitrine below.
The exhibition included the machinery and materials involved in the process, alongside photographs of the individual clay forms before their fall and a two-hour video showing the sculpture slowly accumulating in the vitrine. At the end of the exhibition, the clay was returned to the local brick factory, allowing the material to re-enter the cycle from which it had come.
This project was made possible through funding by the Arts Council England, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim and the University of the West of England.
