The Figure
Aurelia
This Sculpture is presently FOR SALE
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Aurelia, first started in 1985 in Manchester, had to be abandoned, unfinished, due to both aesthetic and technical difficulties. A second attempt was begun in Paris in 1987; although I do not have precise records of the hours spent on this piece, I would expect that they would total approximately three to four hundred.
The main model was an English girl by the name of Tracy Lamb and the photographs of her, from which I worked, were taken in Manchester at my studio on Old Hume Hall road. The actual sculpture was started again in Paris; the models that worked with me on this piece were numerous and include many friends.
Was it Aurelia’s ecstatic heavenward reach; her innate sense of liberation that encouraged Blake to release this as the first piece from his studio? Or is she to be seen as the mouthpiece, or the expression of the artist’s own release at finally exhibiting after years of work? Captured mid-step, Aurelia exudes an almost spiritual energy, rejoicing in the suppleness of her body and the grace of her dance.
Aurelia was the first sculpture I ever had cast in bronze. She was built at two-thirds life-size and due to my practical ignorance of the casting process, the size of the mould and the unfortunate choice of material used to make the mould; plaster instead of Fiberglass, the mould was too heavy to handle properly. As a result, the second wax poured was badly damaged, and the mould almost entirely lost. Thus I had only the remaining wax copy and I spent several weeks repairing it. We then cast this wax in bronze with great care. Once in bronze, I had replacement mould built. However, due to the shrinkage of the wax and the bronze, (approximately nine per cent) the new mould is, of course, smaller than the original.
