Wendy Taylor

Description

Wendy Taylor has often stated that what she aims for is "bulk, form, feel, even smell". It is with this notion of textural sensuousness in mind that she has created Sycamore.



For many years, Taylor has created detailed drawings of plants and animals alongside her sculpture. She is a member of the Royal Zoological Society and is scrupulously accurate in her depictions, researching the anatomy of her subjects. Sycamore is a continuation of this attention to detail and accuracy.

Following on from her smaller-scale Seed Series, this sculpture evokes notions of time and potential. Seeds are potential life encapsulated in species-specific casement, each of which serves a different function pertinent to the conditions it needs to start to grow. The sycamore seeds' job is to glide, to twist and turn that they may gently fall to the ground, to rest on the surface and be brushed into the soil. Wendy Taylor presents the seed at the moment of rest. Its other wing is either buried or broken off and it stands poised at an unsustainable angle, pluming up from the soil.

That she presents it to us in this position reveals it as a moment of destiny captured. We know not what will happen to the seed, or whether its potential will be realised and a tree will grow from it, only that it has fallen here and that it is beautiful. The fact she has chosen to realise such an ephemeral object in bronze, an enduring and ancient material, is to underline this association with time.

The size and position of the sculpture also encourage us to engage with it. As it thrusts into our eyeline, the enlargement of every vein means we can truly marvel at the beauty and detail of this natural form.