fig. 1

The spine is of Sapele, a Nigerian Hardwood.
A cross bar forms the joining of the topmost part, like the T, the Tau, the tree, a human standing.
The wood is made rough the impression is of a relic hand made, also reference to carved wooden puppets.
An old length of marine ships rope, previously in service at the Isle of Dogs, forms the body.
This ancient and worn rope curves and undulates, its travel guided and maintained in separation  by the dynamic framing of the wooden skeleton.
Nothing is rigidly fixed in its joining all is fluid.

The rope follows the groove of the bicycle wheels above and the groove of the guttering below
This guttering, which provides twin tracks for the rocking motion, was screaming at me quietly and gently for attention on my daily walks to and from the studio, it took me a number of days to listen to such a rusty piece of roadside rubbish.
These materials articulate a solid/flexible/contained/defined/dynamic conversation.
Here in discussion is a unity of rope and chromed wheel frame with the rusty guttering. This necessitates a mediator and  rubber satisfies this role sacrificing itself to the continuing dialogue. These movement troughs are raised, as if levitating above the ground implying a lightness beyond the significant weight of the body.
Time passing has stained this metal with rust, it is like something found washed up on the beach.
Despite these signs of age structurally and materially it is robust.
The profile of the guttering fits the cross section of the rope like a glove.

Sapele cross piece this is an intersection, a meeting point of materials a unity in functionality.
Within this dynamic frame all is movement sculpted through degrees of freedom and restriction.
Brass and teflon ease the structural weight, facilitating a sliding motion.
Wood colour is rich reddish brown grained and mineral quality.
Rubber definitive, flexible and containing.
Bone like the knuckle movement rubbing wood on wood, wearing like ships rigging, alteration and character developing and growing through action. 
The form echos above also below.
Rubber tightly clutching rope from the wood, liquid, clasping, elastic grip.

How do we stand other than through the very nature of what we are that is standing.
Body’s weight supports body, exploiting it’s own mass and gravity to lift up rather than send to the ground.
A matrix of pendulums gifting dynamic form instead of rigid structure.
Position is negotiated, not fixed with the return to neutral never following the exact same path.
Spine-like ascension up reducing in size and weight, grounded and the significance of foundation.
The path of rope directed in an undulating meandering not symmetrical.

Downward pulling is enhanced by an elastic cord connecting from the wooden to the metal.
The tree grows from the ground, the sapele dowel through steel shaft.
The rotational motion of a motor is communicated to this body through a golf cart handle via a universal joint through to axles as bolts. All of this is rotating about a nylon bushing which mediates this continuous motion mitigating the hard conviction of steel with the soft, solid compliance of the wooden sapele spine.

A machined steel shaft passes through a brass bushing which manages the dialogue dynamically , rotationally with the the iroko pelvic platform (The resident spirit has been calmed through balance and acknowledgement so that it does not misbehave mechanically and respectfully maintains a shifting and sturdy foundational platform.). It’s shape is a hybrid of mechanical geometric and hand eye curve.

An old english bicycle wheel, interlacing tension structure. Uncleaned offering its residual grime to this created body.
The freedom of the wheels motion is exploited yet restricted, secured through a metal block to pelvic iroko at angles secured by brass intermediaries and stainless steel bolts
One part of this is secure and another is rolling with a back and forth, see-saw motion.
The rope follows these wheels, the wooden spine connects through the platform. The overall movement is the combination of these parts and how they effect each other.

The stainless steel bolt holds fast to the golf cart handle drive shaft. All rotation is communicated via nylon and brass bushings through a children's bicycle pedal. A surplus drilled hole shows the experimental nature of this process where conclusions are continuously drawn through trial and error.
Time is on display documented by the wearing of the metal handle, so much time passed.

An unlikely coupling, where precision lies within the cavity of the less precise.
This is the second iteration of this main drive axle, now sealed stainless bearings offer their firm suggestion of exact rotation.
Counterpoint to the incongruous mechanical poem which this technology connects through to.
This is a principal place of translation between a rotational drive motor and the forward and back shifting motion of the lever to the bowing and turning body.
Brass takes place as a physical acceptor of the differences of others, softness meeting hardness.
Texture has a dominant role here as does colour.

A rear view of the body anthropomorphism this is suggested
A technique here employed is to take what is given without alteration, the rope is not cut
The original length is viewed as perfect. 
This exploits the found attributes of an object as useful limiting factors and so collaborating with the found physical character of a thing.
The rope terminations accidentally imply buttocks, dynamic in their motion forward backward together and apart.
The wooden spine repetition of cross structures, an internal physical solidity to hold the soft external, echoing the body form.
All these exist in a continuum of relative softness to hardness, the separate and disparate unifies to become one.

A meeting place, where one nature meets another. 
A region of translation.
The pedal converts the rotation into up-down forward-backward.
The body moved is large but of balance and so requires a relatively small driver for its weight.
Shifting from equilibrium to just past then to the other side and again and again.
The gears are visible, the way this body is moved is public and not hidden. An absorption of the mechanical functionality into the aesthetic language of the art work.
The gears calibrate the pace for each part.
The wooden circuit board which holds the motor , motor controller , turning
mechanism and gears is the same iroko as on the bodies pelvis, drawing a material connection between the driver and the driven.
A play between shape and variation of metals, the tendons of mechanism exposed and the engine’s rotation converted by elegant simplicity.

Showing the the iroko of the circuit board at right angles to the iroko of the body.
The rigid plinths of scaffolding and rusty guttering gift foundation to the movement of soft rope and wheels and skeleton structure.
Nestled also on the motor board is the motor controller offering a further technology encased in black plastic.

Elegance of rope suggestive of a head and without being this at all.
The mass and volume of this implied body happens through an outline of rope. An always changing breathing and moving outline, a living animation of a line of rope with history and texture. 
Like tar and pitch the black rubber is a means for the sapele skeleton to hold the rope gently yet with conviction, a flexible clasping.
Here all parts accept one another as if through this making process the result is and was always inevitable.
The wheel defines this soft undulating of the rope line, an active conversation between these materials, rope formless flexible, wheel, tension structure and rigid.

A chain functions as one of a number of unifying devises between the three sculptures, here providing a precise addition of weight to the heavy industrial pulley ballast.
Equal parts material, form, colour and mechanical every part plays together like an orchestra, the addition of machined brass and steel contribute precision and preciousness.
Black cord balances tension and release not driving rather holding and containing motion.
The knot (man harness knot) is ancient drawing on this and referencing the continuum of mechanical knowledge and technology.
Below the iroko wooden plate cables turn the body rotationally side to side
A brass bushing mediates physically this rotation between the metal shaft and the wooden pelvic plate.

All the constituent parts form a whole which seems to have always existed as this.
All parts appear this way and move in unison towards a collective expression of a body alive and bowing.