Love Tokens

This new body of work was Inspired by a 19th century Japanese Love Token that I saw in the gallery Art Sablon during an erotic exhibition un Bruxelles.

My work had continued to explore concrete and porcelain. ́Trophies’, uses porcelain to describe bone on a concrete plinth; the relationship between the two materials became an important part of the work, their individual experience and narrative are as much part of the sculpture as the subject. ‘Martyrs,’ is an installation based on Greek Herma. I used the structure of concrete to contain the porcelain portraits replacing the volume of the body, the porcelain and concrete became one object.

In ́Love Tokens’ the intimacy and movement of two bodies in porcelain, is enveloped by the concrete, which has become a protective shell encasing it’s precious interior, offering a window to see in.

The framed sides of the sculpture allude to false doors in ancient cultures such as Japan and Egypt. I saw many of these relief sculptures on a recent trip to Egypt and was inspired by the promise and hope that loved ones are behind them.

The first sculpture of ́Love Tokens’ is the union of a man and woman and felt like a natural place to start this work. The union of two bodies which focus on their point of connection was to work with the tension in the movement. The two body parts coming together in a frame of a second. Sex is a journey, of movement and the intention of that movement. If I worked without the pressures and tensions on the skin, the blood filling and swelling, I would kill the moment, quite literally.

As with Martyrs, I began with the portrait of a caucasian man a reflection of myself and found so much of myself was missing in this one expression. One Herma became nine, describing alternative race and gender. Tension too, as it has developed, has become an exploration of sexuality, my sexuality and a relationship between intimacy and it’s experience.

My intention is to make acts of love, played out, censored and exploited in pornography and culture, intimate. I want to create sculpture akin to a love story. “

James B. Webster