This project starts with a little model, that responds to the contest proposal of the symposium. To make a sculpture in wood in 5 days inspire by the cycling theme. Because the city of Sonderborg will receive one of the phases of the biggest event in Europe of cycling, the Tour de France.
So after being selected from more than 200 participation sculptors. I travel to the city and in less than a week, I finished my sculpture.
Today is displayed as a public sculpture, making part of the surroundings of the city.
At the end of 2021, I have been invited to project and make a sculpture to integrate the surrounding of the business center of TagusPark in Portugal and be part of the public museum of urban art growing there.
Having in mind the guideline that the client gave me, which has a sense of steampunk and the aesthetic reference to the well-known movie, Mad Max, and is a post-apocalyptic scenario, I start by projecting a model in 3D.
The idea has to create this futuristic angel. A hybrid figure, mixing human and machine.
A connection that I think has to be pure if we want to fly far through the future.
The sculpture is made mostly in welded iron, the wings are made from 920 inox feathers welded together, and the face was molded to be cast in resin and fiberglass.
This sculpture was made during a two weeks symposium in France, among other 5 sculptors.
The theme of the event was the animals from the Mediterranean.
I decided to make a homage to the lynx. First because have been a protected species in Portugal, and also have been a reference to me, as one of the first times that I understand as a kid, that we have to protect our environment. Second, I will always remember, when I traveled to Turkey, and on a private farm I saw a lynx in a cage, just for the pleasure of the owner, that shocked me.
How far can the vanity of humans go?!
On the back of the sculpture, I decided to do a kind medallion to reinforce the idea of an homage to the lynx.
I used a technique of very low relief, almost like the schiacciato (squeeze), invented by the Italian sculptor Donatello.
Below the medallion, I sculpted, also in relief a kind of tree, the trunk and the branches are carved to look like ropes, symbolizing strength, roots, and persistence.
