Listen to the Wind
15,5 in / 40 cm
Listen to the wind, you lovely soul taking flight.
Sculpture on amethyst. A man is sitting on a mountaintop in the desert. His feet and legs are firmly gripping the rock; he is stretching out his arms, mimicking flight. A large bird is gripping his left arm. Hooded, the bird’s head is slightly tilted, listening to the man’s instructions. Curiously, the bird, who has the knowledge of flight, is listening to the hermit’s explanations: if the air is warm, thrust your wings this way; if the wind is strong, it is heading towards the ocean; if it’s dry, it is the north wind, etc.
I believe that when a soul inhabits a body, it fits into it so perfectly that sometimes, when the time comes to leave it, it no longer remembers how to fly away.
Anecdote
I made this sculpture for my father.
One day, as he was working with me, my father told me he would love to have one of my sculptures. He was mounting sculptures onto granite, and although there was one he was particularly fond of, he didn’t think my mother would like it (#50). Before I could create a sculpture that would be ideally suited for them, he fell ill. It was at his hospital bed, shortly before his death, that I showed him this piece.
Treatment
Bronze on amethyst (15.5in/40cm). Quartz geode. The skin has been worked with ferric nitrate, the hood with copper nitrate, and the scarf and the loincloth with white patina. The bird and hair are black.
