Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Rachel Kneebone’s Porcelain Sculptures of Writhing Human Bodies

London based sculptor Rachel Kneebone is well known for her complex porcelain pieces that contain writhing groupings of human figures. Her work has been described as depicting an "erotic state of flux" and "celebrating forms of transgression, beauty and seduction," influenced by ancient Greek and Roman myths and also the modern human experience- you can find aspects of change, death, growth, renewal, and lust dissolved together in her individual pieces.

London based sculptor Rachel Kneebone is well known for her complex porcelain pieces that contain writhing groupings of human figures. Her work has been described as depicting an “erotic state of flux” and “celebrating forms of transgression, beauty and seduction,” influenced by ancient Greek and Roman myths and also the modern human experience- you can find aspects of change, death, growth, renewal, and lust dissolved together in her individual pieces.

Kneebone models her porcelain and gives it a preliminary (bisque) firing before applying a clear glaze and returning it to her kiln for the final firing. In response to heating and cooling, the material shrinks, ruptures, and cracks, further transforming the piece. One of her most ambitious works to date is her tiled column of tumbling figures entitled “399 Days” (2012-13), measuring over 17 ft tall and made of porcelain and steel. Rather than modeling the human body with realism, she builds her sculptures out of hybrid body parts, odd mutations that resemble masterworks of the past, but are utterly contemporary.

In particular, her style has been compared to Auguste Rodin’s figures for its highly emotional qualities, and was even shown alongside Rodin’s masterpieces in her 2012 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin”. ” I see my work as really ‘now’, so even though there are historical references, some of that is a byproduct of working with porcelain itself… There’s nothing static about any emotion, and yet there’s a desire to communicate feelings,” she said of her work in the exhibit. Kneebone has said that her work treats a figurative subject as though it were still life, describing the challenging process of expressing their physicality as a “war”. Later noting, “I want people to start feeling art, not just looking at it.”

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Jannick Deslauriers uses textiles to create ghostly, massive sculptures. Whether it’s a time-worn car or a cityscape, her works appear as structures that can be passed through. She uses darker threads as her "pencil outlines," blending textures and techniques to create pieces that resemble little else.
Calgary-born artist Maskull Lasserre creates improbable sculptures that defy their materials and challenge the viewer’s expectations. His "Schrodinger's Wood," made from Ash tree trunk, a chain hoist and gantry, appears as a rope tethering one piece to another, as rendered by the artist. And even when the truth of its material is revealed, the piece still offers tension in its “breaking.”
Korean artist Choi Xooang (whom we previously featured here) creates hyperreal, resin sculptures that shock with their unexpected, violent manipulations of the human body. His latest body of work features couples and doubles grappling with each other's flesh. In one piece, a woman's fist penetrates the back of another's skull while in another, a masked woman is strapped with a male torso like a backpack, carrying the weight of another's mutated and mutilated body. Choi adds eroticism to these graphic visions. The bodies he chooses to manipulate are graceful and model-esque, yet each one contains its own set of disorienting details that provoke our collective anxieties.
Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or depends on motion for its effect. For the 11 international artists in the upcoming exhibit "Perpetual Motion" at Heron Arts in San Francisco, movement is fundamental to storytelling. Their collective kinetic works offer a modern interpretation of this age old art form that redefined sculpture into more than three-dimensional- it transformed our perceptions of line, color and life itself into an extension of the human imagination.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List