CORPUS
— the main body or corporeal substance of a thing
CORPUS is a group of small sculptures created in the spring and summer of 2022.
In the past I have often worked by making pieces in series that share a common title as well as a similar starting point or format, allowing me to explore variations on an echoing theme. This way of working usually involves acquiring new, specific materials that are common to all the pieces.
My approach was different with CORPUS.
In my studio there are objects/things/materials that I have made or acquired over the 45-odd years I‘ve been making sculpture. I’ve now and then tried to incorporate them in my constructed pieces but without satisfactory resolution. There they have sat on dusty shelves or piled in corners, familiar remnants, waiting for their time.
Each of the pieces in the CORPUS series began with such an odd remnant, so each sculpture is individual and unlike the next. Most of them are comprised of only one other, more minor element, at most two. The effect of this simple combination elevates them from disparate remainders to whole works.
I wanted them to be elemental, unadorned, hence my choice of the title CORPUS. They are about their physical-ness, be it actual or illusory, and about how that physicality occupies the space around them.
Catherine Burgess
August, 2022
Join us for the Opening Reception with the artist: Thursday, September 22 from 7 - 9 pm
