(Zoom-) Opening: May 14, 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: May 15 – June 18 2021
Ending: June 18
Exhibition video
Showroom
Talk25
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Crossing borders, daring transitions, penetrating into unknown areas – transgressive processes are part of life. We cross borders, sometimes our own, sometimes social – sometimes without realizing it, sometimes quite consciously. It is precisely these border crossings that Terence Carr artistically deals with, for example in his series of sculptures “Seven Sins”. In Christianity, sins are the opposite of virtues and humans are in constant conflicts. We have been exposed to temptations since ancient times, ranging from laziness, greed, envy and pride to fornication, gluttony and anger. In his “Seven Sins”, Carr relies on a clearly understandable language of form that has a direct and immediate effect. Despite this clarity, the compactly composed sculptures are full of details, expressively designed and filigree.
The sculptures are based on sketches made as wax models and cast in bronze. In the end, every single sin is captured in clear, bright colors that bring out the relationship within the sculpture even more. Despite the sinful subject matter, the bronze figures exude a lively cheerfulness that is unmistakably Terence Carr’s signature. Carr usually prefers to work with large blocks of wood. With the chainsaw, he lets himself be guided by intuition and the material itself. The wood always remains visible as a material, the traces of the saw are part of the sculpture as a visualized process and emphasized by the color. Terence Carr also casts the wooden sculptures in bronze. Where the wooden figure looks mighty and striking, the bronze sculpture comes across as small and delicate. The rough cuts are also visible in bronze. The properties of wood are transformed into metal. However, the striking machining marks cast in metal do not appear rough, but delicate and filigree. The juxtaposition of the wood and bronze sculptures shows how our perception crosses borders. Two objects that are actually the same look very different when viewed. The same applies to sins: where one person sees only laziness, another recognizes the ability to take time for himself.
Transgressive processes can also be found in the biography of the Kenyan-born. He left Africa as a young man for a career in the British Army. When he was stationed in Germany, he not only came to the inner-German border, but also to his own. On a course of confrontation with the indoctrinated values and virtues, Carr decides to break with the life of a soldier. He left the army and studied art education in Augsburg, after which he went on to work as a freelance artist. His oeuvre bears witness not only to the African roots, but also to the conflict with the war. Virtue and sins run like a red thread through his artistic work. He wraps serious issues under brightly colored layers of paint. Sometimes hidden and symbolic, sometimes clear and immediate, always wild and expressive.
