Sorceror's Ghost, 2009
blown glass, pigment, resin and wax
2 pieces: 128 cm (h) and 116 cm (h) respectively
Provenance
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
Acquired from the above on 11 August 2010
Literature
J. Engberg and C. Day, Benjamin Armstrong - Holding a Thread, Emblem Books, Sydney, 2010, illus. p. 88
"Benjamin Armstrong's sculptures are not representations. They remind us of things, but they are not likenesses of objects we can name with an absolute sense of confidence. In this way they are perplexing, even disturbing. By not being like something, they provide no ontological security. Instead they provoke our imagination and activate our restless unconscious. Depending upon what lurks in that individual, irrational mental place, these sculptures can suggest many ideas....
Ben's sculptures declare their organicism and handmadeness: They display unique attributes that make them individual expressions rather than predictable and manufactured standardisation. They tend towards craft in this aspect of themselves, and recall the pathological pursuits associated with styles such as Hellenism, baroque, rococo, art nouveau, surrealism and, latterly, installation, which luxuriate in texture and embellishments." (Juliana Enberg 'Insinuate', Benjamin Armstrong - Holding a Thread, Emblem, Sydney, 2010, p.6-7)
Image courtesy of the artist and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. Photo by Geoff Boccalatte