Gary Hume
06 Mar - 21 Apr 2013
GARY HUME
Liberty Grip
6 March – 21 April 2013
For each of the three discrete sections of Liberty Grip, Hume used as a template the arm of a mannequin, enlarging this mass-produced, utilitarian object to a colossal scale. Hume then positioned the three arms into an evocative group of forms that suggests both a bundle of limbs or a contorted hand. Bronze on this scale usually commemorates the feat of a war hero or the triumphs of a nation, but with Liberty Grip Hume toys with our conventional uses of monumental sculpture, treating it with mischievous sense of scale, even painting the tips of the abruptly cut-off limbs a playful, intimate colour. Liberty Grip brings to mind the detached and colossal hand of the Roman Emperor Constantine, yet where that sculpture, now in fragments, celebrated the feats of a leader, Hume swaps bravado for all the sensuality and wit that characterise his paintings.
Liberty Grip
6 March – 21 April 2013
For each of the three discrete sections of Liberty Grip, Hume used as a template the arm of a mannequin, enlarging this mass-produced, utilitarian object to a colossal scale. Hume then positioned the three arms into an evocative group of forms that suggests both a bundle of limbs or a contorted hand. Bronze on this scale usually commemorates the feat of a war hero or the triumphs of a nation, but with Liberty Grip Hume toys with our conventional uses of monumental sculpture, treating it with mischievous sense of scale, even painting the tips of the abruptly cut-off limbs a playful, intimate colour. Liberty Grip brings to mind the detached and colossal hand of the Roman Emperor Constantine, yet where that sculpture, now in fragments, celebrated the feats of a leader, Hume swaps bravado for all the sensuality and wit that characterise his paintings.