{"id":29807,"date":"2015-08-26T13:56:10","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T17:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=29807"},"modified":"2015-10-05T19:46:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T23:46:16","slug":"post-mythology-in-blake-wards-sculptures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=29807","title":{"rendered":"Post Mythology in Blake Ward’s sculptures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Post Mythology: A State of Dematerialization<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bodies in metamorphosis, balanced between Apocalypse and the Postmodern, steeped in a lost classical age, echoed through an ever-evolving Renaissance, in vibrant tension or torsion as they head toward some future Utopia. Undeniably endowed as sculptor and Neoclassicist, with his wandering, ambiguous forms, Blake questions the anthropological concepts of a heart-rending humanity, suspended between past and future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Blake Ward, Ushabtis Hetheru, 2015, bronze,\u00a0H: 31.5″, W: 6.7″, D: 6.3″(left) & Hathor, 2015, bronze,\u00a0H: 28.7″, W: 3.5″, D: 6.7″. Courtesy of the artist and Artics\u00f3k Gallery<\/p>\n

Blake\u2019s strongly dynamic bodies \u2013 at once powerful and fleeting and gesturing violently, fixed in bronze in a state of dematerialization, somewhere between being and nothingness \u2013 appear to seek a dialogue with the absolute. They are inexplicably solid and light, conceived to last in tome and space, destined to become a mythology of our digitalized, computerized present, and have a great emotional and visual impact. Blake places the human (and especially female) body at the center of what he is seeking, with its expressive, metaphorical potential as a subject of investigation and contemplation of the human condition, using sculpture to give plastic form to our otherwise imperceptible inner realm, in a potent almost Michaelangelesque physical presence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Blake Ward, Angel Angthal (Angel of peace), 2014, bronze, detail.\u00a0Courtesy of the artist and Artics\u00f3k Gallery<\/p>\n

Calmly, these bodies ooze with anxiety, and seem to express a dialogue between skin and flesh, spirit and matter, in a coupling of physical and spiritual entities: recognition of interior and exterior to be seen and touched, seductive and irremediably tragic in the celebration of the power of the body. They are goddesses and heroes, myths about everything or nothing \u2013 bodies that symbolize the loss of the transcendent from its perfect imperfection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Blake Ward, Ushabti Renenet, 2015, bronze,\u00a0H: 32.7″, W: 8.7″, D: 9.8″ & \u00a0Ushabti Heqet, 2015, bronze,\u00a0H: 33.1″, W: 6.7″, D: 8.7″. Courtesy of the artist and Artics\u00f3k Gallery<\/p>\n

Jacqueline Ceresoli<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information:\u00a0Blake Ward: Depth of Perception,\u00a0<\/em>August 27 \u2013 September 19, 2015, Opening Reception: Thursday, Augustus 27, 2015 \/ 6-9 p.m.,\u00a0Artics\u00f3k Gallery, 1697 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed \u2013 Sat, 12 \u2013 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacqueline Ceresoli<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are goddesses and heroes, myths about everything or nothing \u2013 bodies that symbolize the loss of the transcendent from its perfect imperfection.<\/p>\n

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