Michael Sandle

Description

The Queen of the Night, based on Kali the Hindu goddess of love and revenge, is Michael Sandle's summation of his musings about violence in women, a subject that has remained with him since childhood. Sandle's relationship with his mother, a strong and sometimes violent person, triggered an obsession with aggression which feeds his work constantly.

This sculpture may possibly be the last in Sandle's long series of monumental standing female figures which includes St Margaret 1992 and Woman for Heidelberg 1987. These compositions are allusive, containing sculptural elements culled from many sources. The Queen of the Night has very few loving attributes. Although in some ways she is a curvaceous being, there are less endearing elements to her form: the breasts are cast from a lemon squeezer, and in Sandle's words, 'She has a nasty, unpleasant head and a head-dress that came from thinking of Wrigley's chewing gum packs'. The wreath of burning penises which at first appears almost as a garland of fruit is held aloft by Sandle's bête noire and gives the sculpture a bucolic mood which is quickly dispelled on further examination. In a sense the sculpture reads as a parable on the institution of marriage from the artist's point of view. This is strong stuff indeed. However, Sandle is an honest sculptor. He reflects long and hard on his subject matter through copious drawings and by making many models of the few sculptures he is inclined to realise on a monumental scale. He also puts into his work his darkest feelings. These may come from the depths of his being or be employed as part of an intellectual game in which black humour holds centre stage. Sandle's vision is large, and his work, whilst not easy to engage with, gives to the viewer an experience of sculpture that stands apart from fashion, hype, commercialism and shallow fancy.