Phillip King

Description

In Sun's Roots Phillip King has sought to visualise the impossible: the sun rooted in the earth. His reflections on the subject for this sculpture stem from the considerable amount of time he has spent in Japan over the last few years, where he worked in a ceramics studio. During those periods he inevitably became aware of Shintoism, and in Sun's Roots he makes reference to the first Japanese Emperor who, according to legend, was born of the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami. This belief in the direct descent of emperors from the gods lasted for nearly two thousand years, ending in 1945 when the Emperor Hirohito renounced his 'divine powers'.

Sun's Roots may be seen as a metaphor for dismantling the mystique of ruling dynasties. It is interesting to note that Phillip King has in the past made references to other kings in his work, for example in Genghis Khan of 1963 and the Fire King sculptures of the early 1990s - a humorous play on his name, perhaps?

Formally, the disc that symbolises the sun has a strange double curve across its surface, like an asymmetrical ripple in water. This device enlivens the sculpture, giving to the perimeter areas of different thickness which seem to anchor the sun more firmly to the ground. The grid symbolising the roots is open, and contrasts both with the apparent solidity of the sun and with its differing geometry. The patina was applied by the artist, and the rich golden texture which is developing on Sun's Roots serves to underline its subject-matter, as does the green of the grid. Made to be seen on top of a hill, Sun's Roots takes us back to the myth of the first Emperor of Japan, supposedly born on the slopes of the sacred mountain Takahagahara.