Sculptomatic I began with a collection of 500 images of sculptures from different periods and cultures, all selected for one apparently arbitrary reason: they contained some kind of hole.
The images were stripped of information about scale, location and context, then handed to a crew of twenty participants who were asked to make clay versions at a rate of five an hour. The intention was to set up a system in which Dunhill and O’Brien could generate a new sculpture while interfering with it as little as possible.
Each freshly modelled form was photographed, placed on a wooden tray and sent slowly up a ten-metre motorised elevator. At a height of around five metres it dropped into a vitrine below. One new object fell every thirty seconds, gradually collapsing, deforming and fusing with those already there until the individual models became a single two-tonne mass of raw clay.
The final installation included the machinery, modelling stations and other materials involved in the process, alongside a four-hour video showing the sculpture slowly accumulating in the vitrine.
This project was made possible through funding by the Arts Council England, The James Hockey Gallery and the University of the West of England.
