Steven Lockwood -MFA Sculptor
Comparing the stability in architecture with emotional stability within ourselves.
This series of work is about overcoming obstacles in your life or being overcome BY these obstacles. Amongst the struggles one places on oneself or the conflicts amongst others, These pieces explore the relationship with others and myself along with the scars that we carry. The concrete block as a symbol of an individual’s strong will. Even though we are resilient, we can be bent or be molded, broken or sturdy. These individuals are doomed to continue the pain of their past. The work utilizes tough materials, while still showing the sensitive side of a calloused hand.
"I'm made up of giant steal beams. They go all through out my body. Then one day I turned myself inside-out, until I realized those steal beams were really rotten desires. They run all through out this body, this thing holding me. But inevitably, despite my worst injuries, I am still powerful. I am an iron beam.
A beautiful conductor of this orchestra."
Restraint
Steel | Concrete | 4'.5" x 3'.5" x 3' SOLD
From a cold emotionless block, this monolith form is a metaphor for the human body and its emotions. This cement form is being suppressed by restraints as it tries to lift itself up off the ground. Like shackles ripping through flesh, the form shows its power against gravity and the pain of moving forward in order to free itself from what was holding it down.
Lost Limbs
Concrete | Rebar | Silicone | Paint |10'x3'x5'
Lost Limbs gives the connotation of a phantom limb, where you’re used to having a part of yourself there but it’s not there anymore. I.e. the hole in the heart, the courage within. Separated tendons or nerve endings are searching and feeling in the air for the other to attach itself again. These industrial materials, known for being cold and emotionless, seem to become humanized with compassion and longing for the other half. Doomed to carry its memories of the past, its concrete skin has been damaged and showing the bodies muscle underneath.
Each living creature is said to be alive and to be the same individual-- as for example, someone is said to be the same person from when he is a child until he comes to be an old man. And yet, if he's called the same, that's despite the fact that he's never made up from the same things, but is always being renewed, and losing what he had before, whether its hair, or flesh, or bones, or blood, in fact, the whole body. And don't suppose that this is just true in the case of the body; in the case of the soul, too, its traits, habits, opinions, desires, pleasures, pains, fears-- none of these things is ever the same in any individual, but some are coming into existence, others passing away.
It's Bound to Hurt
Steel Cable Wire | Shock Absorber | Latex | Paint | Yarn | 3' x 2.6" x 4"
Karma does exist. As tough as the concrete around your skin is protecting it’s inner self, it can’t protect you forever. After a while your past does come back to haunt you. Nothing can cushion the repetitive blow from hiding your demons within. This piece is stuck repeating events from its past till it splits what was once a resilient mind.
The Weak and Powerful
Steel | Concrete | 4' x 42" x 6"
Pressure:
You push down on me, you emit your pressure on me.
This pressure I have grown accustomed to.
It has become my friend now and as you lose your grip on this pressure, I retain mine.
-Poet Unknown
The Enabler
Car Jack | Concrete | 14" x 27.5" x 5"
Doing the heavy lifting for you.
Community Involvement
Wood | Steel | Fiber Glass Resin | 8' x 16' x 11' SOLD
A set of telephone poles crippled from lack of communication, yet connected at their foundation. Metal rods representing live electric wires, with one set collapsed and the other flares. "Post" and "Comments" made by the public, are left on the poles like a community board for each to know all about the other.
Right In Two
Steel | Flexcoat Concrete | 16" x 16" x 7'
Columns, are unbreakable, strong and used for interior suppose. They are able to withstand pressure from being squeezed from both above and below. RIGHT IN TWO is now an exposed, divided, and broken beam. It is now showing the rebar that was used to ensure its internal strength against breakage as exposed root ends.
Carrie My Baggage
Concrete | Cable | Wedding Ring | Hardware | 5'x6'x3' SOLD
Snuggle
Ratchet Strap | Concrete |10" x 9" x 6" SOLD
Echad
Concrete | Steel | Variable Dimensions
Hebrew for "To Become One." A column is a compression member. In a marriage, it is said that they become one of one flesh. When purposely chiseled away, one's intent is to break away from that unity ultimately exposing one's skeletal structure within.