Joanna Mallin-Davies @ Broomhill

The Artist Speaks

“Whether in a state of rapture or serenity, the women I create have an innate self-possession, an inner smile, as if finding a beautiful, abundant garden. They share the same inner contentment, living in pleasure with themselves and their surroundings, for their own sake. It is their pleasure.

“I carry this feeling of simplicity and strength in the form of the piece. Smooth simple lines and curves accentuated by only slight details of expression in faces and hands, the feeling of peace and balance resonates through the form, even if the tableau itself is not immediately understood.

“The horse, the horse is life. The horse is sex. The relationship between the figures and the horse changes in it's degree of intimacy, interaction and importance; and can be interpreted on several levels - as the fundamentally sexual relationship between horse and rider, women's relationship with her own sexuality, and thus life itself.

“Initially, the men had a very different, less connected energy than the women. There is now a greater communion with the horse and rider of both sexes. So much of the presence of my images comes from antiquity; it's references and reverence in a history of erotica, synonymous with the female nude.”

Influences

“My work is more sensual than sexual; concerned with expression of inner balance on a universal level rather than pertaining specifically to women.My work has always been heavily influenced by the strength and integrity of the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux.

“At college it was purely the image of the horse that fascinated me, the ironically wild carousel horses, bobbing hopelessly, as a metaphor for the human condition. From there I immersed myself in 'The Horse' as it has been represented in art and literature throughout history.

“Few subjects have had such strong symbolic significance to man, and few images, other than the nude, have been so frequently observed in art.

“I studied artists such as George Stubbs, Eugene Delacroix, Degas, Marc Chagall, Franz Marc, and Marino Marini as well as the portrayal of the horse in the ancient civilisations of Greece, Rome and most importantly for me, ancient China and Japan. The colours and dress of modern race horses were a great spur for me too, as I lived in the grounds of a race course, where I was surrounded by the most refined evolution of the creature.

“Alongside this was my development of an idea and feeling of 'Woman'. Simple, sensual curves and inflated weightlessness were very much a feature of the horses I made - the manifestation of this second underlying preoccupation with the essence of female form and presence.

“These ideas and feelings then developed and culminated in the marriage of horse and woman. Living in Hong Kong at the time, the influence of the ancient Chinese and Japanese artifacts, the wood block prints and pillow books, were part of my everyday life. The simplicity of this work, typified what I was trying to communicate. Buddhism and Taoism have influenced my life ever since, their symbolism and teachings inspiring my work.

“The woman and the horse remain a perfect vehicle for me to communicate the different facets of humanity, our relation to the world, emotions and ourselves. Femaleness (what I believe it means to be a woman), spirituality, consciousness, sensuality and inner strength continues to fascinate me, giving me ever growing and changing insights. In that respect, I have always avoided laboured titles, preferring people to see my work un-hindered by my personal 'philosophy'.

“Amedeo Modigliani, Alberto Giaccometti, Odilon Redon, Aubrey Beardsley, George Groez, Andre Derain, Honore Daumier, Frank Dobson, Otto Dix, Howard Hodgkin, Mary Cassatt, Marcel Antoine Gimond, Wilem de Kooning, Aristide Maillol, Tamara de Lempicka, Picasso, DaVinci whom I admire, also influenced my work. The inventor, designer and architect, Buckminster Fuller, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, philosophers Krishna Murti, Thomas Moore, Erich Fromm are my modern heroes.

“I love too many films of the 30s and 40s to mention... The books of Armistead Maupin, the Don Camillo stories, Herman Hesse's 'Siddartha', Alice Walker's 'The Temple of my Famillier', John Irving's 'A Prayer for Owen Meaney' and Shauffer's 'Equus'.”

The Process

Casting is the process of reproducing a 3D image using a mould to produce a replica in another material e.g. bronze. The process for these sculptures uses the lost wax and ceramic shell methods for bronze casting. This involves the following five stages:

Mould Making
A silicon rubber coating of the original. Rubber coating is constructed in sections to enable the mould to be removed from the original, and access to the inside surface and retrieval of the wax positive later on.

A strong fibre glass jacket is layered on top of the rubber to support it. This mould holds a negative image in rubber of the original.

Wax Work
A hollow wax positive of the original is cast from the mould by slushing hot wax into it. The thickness of the wax corresponds to the eventual thickness of the bronze eg.10mm. The wax positive is worked on to make good any imperfections e.g. seamlines, air bubbles. A network of wax rods (sprues) and a funnel- like cup are fitted onto the positive. These become the channels for the molten metal to travel to the job later in the process.

Ceramic Shell
The sprue system and wax positive are coated with a liquid whose ingredients include sodium silicate. The liquid is combined with molicite granules to form an extremely hard shell around the wax when it is dry. The shell is built up using five or six layers like the above, and backed up with fibre glass matting in the liquid, so that the resultant shell is strong enough to take the heat shock it will receive later. The inside cavity of the hollow wax positive is filled with a plaster-based mixture which is called core. The wax is then melted out of the ceramic shell using a high powered blow torch heated up in a kiln leaving a negative space in the shell ready to receive the molten bronze.

The Pour
The bronze is melted to a high temperature in a crucible using a furnace. The bronze is then poured from the crucible into the shells, which have been set into packed sand for extra strength. Leaving ten hours for the bronze to cool, the shell is then ready to be chipped and washed off the metal casting. The cast is a replica of the wax including the sprues and funnel cup.

Metal Finishing and Patination
The sprues are cut off (fettled) and the metal surface worked on to repair any casting imperfections (chasing). Large pieces that are cast in sections are welded together, and the welds chased back to blend in with the form. The finished bronze is coloured (patina) by applying various metal oxides to the surface often using heat. The bronze can then be waxed and polished to slow down the natural oxidising process of the bronze or left natural.