George Cutts

Description

Imagine that you are swimming in the sea, with the motion of waves causing kelp to sway to and fro. This vision inspired George Cutts to create a series of moving sculptures which captured this kind of motion. Sea Change is one of them.

Driven by an electric motor, the curved poles create an undulating movement, causing a change in the space between them as they revolve. The generous, expansive sway in Sea Change reflects its organic origin, interesting to contemplate as it is translated through the inorganic medium of stainless steel. The steel poles catch the light as they revolve, again capturing some of the feeling of an underwater world.

George Cutts is an enthusiastic scuba-diver, and has used his observations of sea weed, currents, wave motion and light in many of his sculptures. The Kiss 1991, which was exhibited at Sculpture at Goodwood during the first season, was extremely popular with visitors, and whilst it was powered in the same way as Sea Change, the more upright poles gave a very different movement - more curving, less swaying than in this sculpture. The motion in both works has a mesmerising quality, much as the tune of the snake charmer's flute mesmerises the cobra.