Victoria Rance

Description

Although this sculpture is in effect an apse, a protective space for a figure to stand inside, Victoria Rance took as her inspiration the form of a mediaeval chest used to hold vestments and other treasures in a Norfolk church. The chest was carved from pine and had a curved top. When Rance embarked on the sculpture, her intention was to make a containing space, and the chest form became instead an architectural one - a space for a saint, or for a human, a precious being. The curved top exhibits a sunburst, the equivalent of a halo in a religious painting or sculpture.

Galvanised steel rods welded close together form the curved wall which shields the figure. Similar rods are worked on in a more open way for the halo whilst completing the volumetric space. The technical requirements in this sculpture are basic, the materials are simple, but the finished work conveys ideas far beyond these simple means.

Victoria Rance also engages mathematics in her work. The circle features frequently. Materials with linear qualities - rods, wires, reeds and bristles - are frequently incorporated. She enjoys the result of gathering a bunch of reeds into a tight bundle, but allowing the ends to spring free, to arrange themselves. Similarly she anchors wires to a solid form, allowing them to indicate volume through the way they react to gravity. Whilst these particular techniques are not employed in Ark, Rance has taken the experience of working such materials into this sculpture. Henry Moore explored ways of a vulnerable form being protected by a stronger, outer one. His sculptures on the theme of Madonna and Child have the spiritual dimension which Victoria Rance seeks in her work, but with different means and within the context of a younger generation.