A Robert Wyatt Construction Kit

A ROBERT WYATT CONSTRUCTION KIT


L'oeuvre de Robert Wyatt n'a certainement pas besoin d'une statue pour passer à la postérité.

Il n'en demeure pas moins que le travail engagé par John O'Rourke est tout à la fois étrange, extravagant et totalement indispensable !


Dans le dernier chapitre de la biographie Different Every Time (page 395 de la version anglaise), Marcus O'Dair présente le projet du plasticien John O'Rourke illustré d'une des premières esquisses de celui-ci.

Régulièrement actualisé, le site de John O'Rourke rend bien compte de ce Work In Progress
épatant :

qui nous enchante par son incongruité et son sérieux d'exécution.







Sur le site du projet, John O'Rourke précise le contexte de ce projet inattendu:

Robert Wyatt Sculpture: After a very extended break, while creating 'Sentius Tectonicus', I have recommenced working on an oak piece entitled 'A Robert Wyatt Construction Kit'. An initial working drawing for the sculpture is featured in Marcus O'Dair's excellent biography of Robert Wyatt. It's called 'Different Every Time'. I'm really pleased to have the time to be working on it again.

There are three buildings inside of his cranium and Robert has placed something within one of them. I've no idea what it is, nor will it ever be revealed. The beard is currently in progress and then I have his hair to add. All of the holes will be plugged with cross grained oak, to fully match the components. Following that there will be further forms to create below his head, mainly architectural but with Romanesque influences: I love the Lewis Chessmen and without mimicking them in any way, there will be an indirect allusion to their form.


John O'Rourke a complété ses explications au cours de plusieurs échanges que j'ai pu avoir avec lui.

"I am making a sculpture of Robert Wyatt. It is being recorded as it progresses...

By the time the sculpture is completed there will be a series of architectural forms ascending below his head - in fact his head will emerge from them. A number of inter-connected passages and hidden chambers will exist throughout the sculpture.

It isn't just the sculpture. There's a painting in progress which is about 4 feet high. It's currently unfinished but included in the website. Also, I'm starting some smaller canvases which are taking the format of construction instructions (like a model kit), but would be impossible to follow.

While it is first and foremost a sculpture of Robert Wyatt, the sculpture indirectly references the Lewis Chessmen and other Romanesque sculptures.

The main pieces in that chess set (king, queen and bishops) are all seated in heavy chairs. Instead of the swirling Celtic forms I will have machine-like cogs etc. and architectural forms. The original Lewis Chessmen are in the British Museum, so once I've finished some drawings which show how the sculptures will appear when the complex forms beneath the head are added I will put them in the website and then approach that museum.

I realize that it's a long shot but worth trying. "