Suspended, waiting as if in anticipation. The simplified forms hang, each bent, welded and shaped into a resemblance. In the suspended stillness, it’s as if the feathers were caught in-motion and stopped in their tracks. Fixed in a steady position, they hover mid-air, balanced and supported in a self-imposed test of weight and stability. Naturally shifting and swaying, they respond to the movement of human presence in the space.
Each of the metal feathers are distinct from the other. In some, the surface is etched and heated, to bring out the colours of iridescence; an expression of what it would be like to be a bird and its desire for flight and potential. Being representational of feathers but not feathers in themselves, the work speaks to associations of a feather.
In my work, I explore the sculptural notions of weight as well as the metaphorical and physical elements of objects. Allowing a material to have agency and be able to speak into the work, as well as taking advantage of an object’s nature and how we relate to it. Despite being inanimate, these feathers have a lifeforce and liveliness of their own. Through the metal, it holds form, shape, memory of its making, along with its unique sense of vitality in it’s becoming.
This work prompts thought into what makes a feather a feather, and whether being a representation affects the object’s worthiness. As metal objects, they sit outside of the true nature of a feather, not capable of performing as ‘functional’ feathers might. In saying that, once a real feather has fallen, it reverts to this same capacity. These stripped back forms, take on more of an artificial stance, performing instead, as impersonations of the original truer forms.
Danielle's Studio Practice 