Every time you see a representation of evolution it will probably be of a monkey slowly transforming into a man. You could be forgiven for thinking that women have never evolved. Instead, they just popped into being, the wonderful creatures they are.
Being somewhat of a science buff I've always been fascinated by the theory of the 'Descent of man' as well as all the different artistic interpretations of its famous imagery. When asked to reproduce this iconic image in a sculpture for a sand sculpture festival in Bogata, Columbia I thought it was high time to show what the ladies were up to while all this was going on ie. Pretty much the same thing. Call me a feminist if you must but it was really that I find it more interesting to carve naked women, no matter what their evolutionary stage.)
It was a pretty standard composition based on the traditional illustrations but I did add a spiralling DNA like structure as a way of connecting them all physically and metaphorically. This element also allowed me to go a bit mad with cut-troughs while keeping the overall sculpture safe and supported. It did have to last 6 months after all.
It took me about 10 days to create the whole sculpture and it was tough work. Bogata is at 8,675 feet, 2,644m above sea level so the lack of air did take some getting used to but all in all it was a nice challenge. I had a lot of fun trying to think about how the face and body of the ancestors would have looked while trying to keep them in some way feminine.
Each Figure was created with no real source material. I just tried to work them all at the same time till I had some kind of balance between human and ape. The work light in the tent was pretty harsh to work by and every pebble of clay in the sand made it very difficult to resolve the surfaces like I would have liked especially for the last figure. These were all small niggles but I worked through them and was quite happy with the results.
The world is not a scary as you think
My loved ones and I did have some reservation before I went to Columbia, thinking that it would be a very dangerous place to work and visit but I never had one problem while there. The locals were so friendly and I really enjoyed the culture. We enjoyed many evening out in great bars and nightclubs with no issues and even got to attend A Miss Tanga competition (Like Miss World) which was great inspiration for my sculpture.
Screwed again
I'll just add this so we all have a complete picture of what happened during this project I'm sure my regular readers will be thinking, 'Not again?' but here goes. Unfortunately, the group of around 30 carvers who went to create the sand sculptures didn't get paid for the work they had done. This was entirely due to the mismanagement of the Dutch organiser who had used all the money from the project to pay off one of their debts. The Host in Columbia was the brother of the president (As far as I remember) and we were all treated very well by him. I could be bitter by the whole thing but, I had such a great time working with all the other carvers from around the world and our Columbian hosts that I just chalked it up to a great Holiday on which I had also made a sculpture that I liked.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Poles Apart - sand sculpture
Knights of the round table - sand sculpture
Colosseum - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
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