Painted Janus

Sunday, May 31, 2020 :: Different views of the Janus sculpture.

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by: Tom Estlack - Sunday, May 31, 2020

This sculpture is part of a piece called Enantiodromia: Janus on the Half Pipe. I was never satisfied with how this element came together. Initially, I started a slush cast, intending to clean debris out of the mold. However, I had so many other things going on in preparation for an exhibition that I decided to skip over some preparatory steps and go for it. So I finally ended up using this raw casting. In the context of the final work, maybe this decision made sense. However, I have wanted to get away from hurrying through many aspects of my working process, so I recently decided to patch and paint it.

Ancient sculptures were painted and colored to bring them to life. It was believed that if you visited a statue at night, it would talk to you. You could make offerings to it, and it would change your life. These days, some artificially intelligent sculptures speak, breathe, change their facial expressions, and reply to you after thinking about what you had just said. This one doesn't do that. It sits in a box with wheels on it, and you can rock and roll it back and forth - more fun than dealing with a damn robot.

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