Thomas Houseago (British, 1972)

Thomas Houseago was born in Leeds, Great Britain, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. Houseago studied art at Central Saint Martins in London, Great Britain and De Ateliers in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The artist integrates traditional and contemporary elements of sculpture, working in bronze, plaster, wood, hemp, and iron rebar. Houseago often uses graphite to draw on areas of his sculptures, giving them the appearance of a pencil sketch having come to life in three dimensions. His sculptures provoke new conversations between Western art historical precedents, such as classical sculpture and cubism, suggesting new modes of considering the past within the present. The use of large scale, disproportionate limbs in his figures is reminiscent of Picasso's depictions of the human body, while elongated segments bring Giacometti to mind. Whereas classical sculptors altered pre-existing forms by carving away at a solid material, Houseago's statues are composed of fragments, combined to make their own form.

Untitled Striding Figure (1), 2007
Bronze, 124 × 96 × 48 in. (315 × 243.8 × 121.9 cm)

Houseago's bronze sculpture, Untitled Striding Figure (1), was permanently installed in the rooftop sculpture garden for Rennie Museum and is partially viewable from the street below. Within the backdrop of the City of Vancouver, the bronze nestles in perfectly with its patinated hue, that both naturally protects the materials from corrosion and reflects a common colour found in Vancouver architecture - from the top of the historic Sun Tower to the colour of the glass condominiums that line False Creek. The work transforms based on which angle it is seen, as various positions cause a shift in perspective. From certain angles the sculpture appears voluminous, but with a slight turn it may be exposed as a pastiche of fragments including, flat and narrow planes, attached to become one. The textured surface of his sculptures mimics the thick impasto paint application of abstract expressionist canvasses of the twentieth century. His rough technique and use of exposed supporting structure, reveals the process inherent to making the work, while theatrical formal gestures allow several dimensions of movement to transform a static object into an unfixed figure. Though the figure appears boisterous and boldly in space, the linear facial expression is coy and gentle, diffusing the common monumentality of grandiose sculpture with a humble stride and sense of humility.