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After the The Still Position sculpture the analytic character of my work reached the expression that I did not want to deepen. Further work in this manner was threatened by adopting the way of thinking and creating characteristic of such domains as design, architecture or machine design. In these domains as well as in nature the very function of a designed object plays the crucial role in shaping of forms, which presently in my opinion is not the most important thing as far as the sculpture is concerned. Therefore, in this series of sculptures I decided on a more intuitive and open to creativity way of composing forms and looking for an order, especially in case of such works as The Three Graces, The Stories for Two Keys and The Sign. These works consist of parts combined together. Particular elements (shapes) receive more and more individual character with the potential of a separate message.
The Stories for two keys
One of the assumptions of this work was an attempt to open the way to the possibilities of combining parts into different configurations. Another formal assumption was to join the geometrical world of forms, straight lines and planes with the world of soft limited shapes. As a part of the whole idea of this work there is also a question: what space possibilities does an ordinary trunk have? The possibilities are not typical. There are interesting solutions in such a limited space (the diameter and the length of a chosen piece of wood).
This space limitation was one of the most important assumptions and it was to cause the expansion of the carved elements into the sculpture and not outside as it takes place in most of constructive sculptures.
The Sign
The most powerful inspiration for this sculpture came to be the elements of the traditional eastern calligraphy – variability and continuity of a line which is left by the traces of a paintbrush while writing. This art appeared to me to be the highest praise of motion and its dynamics as well as the praise of life as a never ending river of changes. Wishing to grasp this aspect in the three-dimensional language of sculpture, I used in my work very irregular and twisted fragments of wood extracting the pattern of lines and tensions in its structure. Concurrently, the whole is determined and ordered by a very subjective and intuitive search for order and meaning that I wanted to extract from the subconscious rather than from the rational presumptions and logical pursuit of a given aim.
J.J. Description written in 2003.
Reflections on “free architecture”
Shapes, fragments, essences
Reflections on “free architecture” is a title displaying a little paradox latent inside. It is a title that arose in my head for naming and putting together a number of small, seemingly irrelevant works, sketches and inspirations. They grew on the grounds of polemic with the architecture. Willingness for releasing something what not necessarily needs to be released, as it supposedly should be subordinated to function, is justified. Architecture need the experience that sculpture have to be precursory and vivid. Similarly sculpture, when the aspect of its architectural structure, framing and statics are neglected, soon becomes meaningless aspic. Another oxymoron lies in the fact that the two disciplines, history of which have interweaved for so long, have as much in common as if they were complete aliens. An inevitable friend, a cruel enemy ready to absorb the more delicate identity. The world of geometrical figures, planes and lines is collided with uncontrolled changeability, vitality and softness of the biological shapes. Dual co-existence of quiescency and motion with an array of all sorts of tensions between them.
Classic sculptors, such as Anthony Caro or Eduardo Chillida, who held knowledge and displayed engagement in architectural activities, managed to conjoin those two disciplines in an astonishing manner. Caro has even coined a new notion for several of his works, namely “sculpitecture”. My journey to the Chillida-Leku Museum, made me come to these conclusions, on grounds of which I made such pieces as “Three Graces”, “Stories for two Keys”, dedicated to the deceased a month before artist. These works draw my attention towards the relations between small, “independent” in their character forms (components, modules) and their capabilities of entering bigger, more holistic structures. I was interested in how certain distinct, separate forms can fit into and form homogenous structure. Perhaps it was then when my first inspirations for my present activities emerged, including searching for little, essential for sculpture shapes and forms, which might be expressed as constituents of the language of sculpture or at least in conjoining and intriguing manner pointing at its diverse aspects.
J.J. fragment of the text from the catalog The Matter of Balance, 2008







The Stories for Two Keys, 2003




The Three Graces, 2002

The Sign, 2002