''Sun Temple in the Andes''
Pink Limestone - France
Private Collection, Ireland.
2005
Pink Limestone - France
Blue Limestone - Ireland
Gold Leaf
6ft 6in High x 6in x 4in { 2m x 0.18m x 0.12m }
Base 11in x 10in { 0.30m x 0.25m }
Base 11in x 10in { 0.30m x 0.25m }
Private Collection, Ireland.
The Story ...
''Sun Temple in the Andes'' is a sculpture that was entirely inspired by the stone and it's colouring and one of those sculptures that 'makes' itself and therefore lets my mind free in peace to enjoy the experience of carving the stone.
This piece of French Limestone came away from a bigger block because of the dark red deposit that was trapped when the stone was being 'born' into nature. Limestone is a sedimentary stone composed largely of deposits of the minerals calcite and aragonite and these are a crystal form of calcium carbonate that are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms and other form of animal life that were trapped when the stone was being formed. Often when I was carving limestone I could smell the 'sea', gases that were locked into the stone millions of years ago and only released when I cut the stone. I always felt 'good' when I smelled the gases, it was as if nature was bringing me back in time ... which it was.
Twelve sided stone of Cusco
Incorporated into my sculpture and carved at the bottom
and symbolic of what the Inca culture was built on I included
the Twelve sided stone of Cusco which was the historic site of the Inca empire. The Inca can be traced back 1200 A.D. The empire began it's rapid expansion in the late 1430's and would dominate South America for the next century. When the Inca were at their height of it's power the Spanish arrived into Aztec lands further north, bringing with them smallpox that would sweep through the Inca lands before the Spanish had even stepped onto Inca soil.
Inca stonework for me is one of the 'wonders of the world'. To see these stones close up was incredible that I was lost for words and can only say inspired me in my future work in the stone. They are massive in size and weight some up to twenty tons and more. Fitted together with no type of mortar that most stones have survived earthquakes to this present day.
The top part of the sculpture is my interpretation of a doorway into a temple where the sun was worshiped for it's energy and power as the giver of life. At the foot of the temple I carved terraces's into the stone symbolic of Machu Picchu,
built around 1450 and referred to as 'City of the Incas'.
built around 1450 and referred to as 'City of the Incas'.
It's where I think I would find a
''Sun Temple in the Andes'.
***
Visit the Video ...
''Sun Temple in the Andes'' by DAF is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
deedaf@gmail.com.
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