Tantalus was a Greek mythological figure. It is told that he sacrifices his son and served his boiled body at a banquet for the Gods. Needless to say they weren't too impressed and sent him for eternal punishment to stand in water beneath a fruit tree. When he tried to reach for the fruit it pulled away and when he tried to drink from the water it receded from his grasp. The word 'Tantalise' is derived from his experience.
Tantalising
During the 2003 Brugge/ Belgium Ice sculpture exhibition I was tasked with creating a sculpture based on this story. I knew that I needed in some way to show the anguish Tantalus must have felt as he reached for the Fruit and water never quite reaching either. I decided on this weird contorted figure with stretched arms and elongated mouth. I liked the idea of trying to show the movements involve In a static sculpture by kind of blurring the form. This is a motif I also explored in later works with very different outcomes.
Material's matter
The materials used were man-made ice and snow. The ice is crystal clear because it is made by keeping the water moving as it freezes but the snow is actually made from crushed ice which is then compacted Like the way I make sand sculpture. This (so called) snow had very dirty layer lines running through it which made for a very ugly surface. I then came up with the idea of using a blow torch to melt the surface and as it froze again a nice marble effect appeared.
This was one of my earlier pieces working with snow and ice and I wasn't that confident with the ice's strength as a material so, as you can see the tree was very chunky.
Ps
Thanks again for joining me on this journey through my work. This is a great opportunity for me to document my sculptures and see how my ideas developed over the years. Your input is invaluable so all criticisms are welcome positive or negative.
To check out some of my latest post click the images below.
Renaissance - sand sculpture
Gulliver- sand sculpture
Poles Apart - video
Hope you are having a nice weekend @ammonite