Not quite fine sculptures by Tip Toland

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The sculptures that he creates Toland type (Tip Toland) can hardly be called beautiful - at least in the traditional sense of the word. They are covered with wrinkles, they have thick bellies, stooped shoulders and a panicky expression on their faces. They are unlikely to cause aesthetic pleasure in the viewer, but at the same time they will certainly affect other, much deeper and more important feelings.

Many people call the sculptures of Tip Toland provocative and claim that they are upset, embarrassing, in places disgusting and completely confusing. The author herself assures that she does not try to deliberately evoke compassion or other similar emotions in the audience: it happens by itself. “I just want to demonstrate human nature,” says Toland. "I just want to show the truth."

The works of Tip Toland touch upon the issues of human vulnerability, fragility and dependence - on nature, on higher powers, on the opinions of other people. And besides, they make you reconsider your understanding of beauty. Is the human body beautiful only in youth or when it corresponds to some certain proportions? Should old age only evoke disgust or, at best, pity?

The lifelike artworks of Tip Toland are made of ceramics. First, the author finds a suitable model and draws a pencil sketch. She then makes a frame around which she forms a clay sculpture. When the clay dries, Type takes the figure apart in order to remove the frame, then burns the parts in the oven (most often not all, but only the torso), reattaches them to each other, and paints the sculpture. Hair, if any, is attached last.

“Art should influence, not just be beautiful” - it is probably impossible to characterize the works of Tip Toland more precisely than Stefano Catalani, curator of her exhibition in Bellevue (USA), did.