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Gabriel Orozco - Black Kites (1997) “This sculpture represents one of Orozco’s most striking uses of a found object, in this case a human skull. In this confrontation with mortality, it was important for the artist that he was working with a genuine skull: ‘I was intrigued by something real, that is not a fake, something natural, real death (if that is possible)’, he later said. Over the course of several months, he painstakingly inscribed a chequerboard pattern over the skull using a graphite pencil. The time-consuming process of drawing was an essential element of the work for Orozco, who had recently emerged from hospital following a collapsed lung. The grid pattern that he chose could be seen as an attempt to overlay a sense of geometrical order over this fundamental emblem of death. In mapping the contours of the skull, however, the neatly ordered grid breaks down into loops and lozenges, while still retaining a characteristic elegance and beauty.” |
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