A 12-Foot Statue Without a Pedestal, Metaphoric or Otherwise
By Nancy Coleman
A detail of Price's “As Sounds Turn to Noise” (2023). Photo: Keith Lubow. © Thomas J Price. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
The London-based artist Thomas J Price’s sculptures — at Hauser & Wirth in L.A. through Aug. 20 — are larger than life, challenging norms about who gets to be memorialized in bronze.
“We recognize bronze as a material of power, and we recognize large figures,” Price says of his works, which range from 9 to 12 feet tall.
“If [a sculpture] is done in bronze, it must be of a person who has done something that warrants being made permanent and visible. My figures are fictional people trying to communicate real moments — we recognize ourselves in the way they’re standing, before we even get to race or gender. They’re a celebration of the everyday.”
“I think most people thought they would be represented quite faithfully, but they’ve become part of something bigger. These amalgams could be up to five or six people in one. I might have someone’s ears, someone else’s nose, to make this character that has enough authenticity to create moments of empathy in the viewer.”
Photo: Roberto Serra. Iguana Press/Getty Images
Price drew inspiration from classical sculpture, including Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s “David.”
“The twist of the torso creates anticipation,” he says. “I loved the idea of giving a figure dynamic potential. I found it quite freeing to connect Bernini and these biblical stories to someone that looks like a friend of ours.”
With a piece like “A Place Beyond,” above, “the contemporary clothing will place it in a specific moment in time as the years go on, but it’s still classical in its rendering and its strength.”
“A statue on a plinth communicates so much in terms of value and who is in a position of power — and it’s never the person looking at the sculpture. These figures stand on the same ground we do. Their scale is one thing; that’s part of the psychological negotiation you have to make as a viewer. But it’s not because they’re standing on a platform higher than you are.”
Photo: Keith Lubow. © Thomas J Price. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Price's "A Place Beyond" (2023). Photo: Keith Lubow. © Thomas J Price. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
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