Untitled
Bridget McCrum
Silk screen print. 2002.
Bridget McCrum’s sculptures and drawings span the gap between figurative work and abstraction. In this Untitled piece there is a delicate balance between geometry and abstracted birds creating a fusion of content with form and with the medium.
This work formed part of an exhibition of bronzes, pastels, drawings and photographs exhibited in the main hall of St James Cavalier in 2002. ‘Untitled’ may be compared to the work of the futurists such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla and significantly Constantin Brancusi. However, whilst the futurists were concerned with the celebration of technology, scientific advance, psychoanalysis and all things modern, McCrums work emphasises the aspect of universal dynamism and flux.
Untitled by McCrum integrates trajectories of speed and flight into the representation of a bird in flight. It does not depict a particular bird at a specific moment, but rather synthesizes the process of a bird in flight in an almost Chronophotographic manner. Unlike Chronophotographs which capture the multiple phases of movement resulting in a scientific output, McCrum manages to give the birds a sense of motion when viewed.
This can be attested from her own statement when discussing her sculptural work: “The landscape around my two homes has inevitably worked itself into my mind. The gentle curves of the hills of South Devon and the stark limestone cliffs carved by wind and sea on Gozo, have all subconsciously influenced my carving. Looking down on birds circling and gliding above their prey from my home high above the Dart estuary. They make marvellously abstracted subjects and I have carved them ever since I have been here.”
Bridget McCrum works primarily in stone, and some pieces are also cast in bronze. Whilst initially inspired by archaeological finds in Somalia, she was later influenced by the work of Brancusi, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Though concerned with form and abstraction McCrum’s work is also about the relationship between art and the environment. The basis of her work is a lyrical abstraction of living forms resulting in showcasing the primary elements of the animals she depicts. This lyricism is wonderfully represented in the birds depicted in ‘Untitled’.