RSA Scottish Art
Twentieth Century Pad
 | Artist: Bill Scott |
| Title: Twentieth Century Pad | |
| Year: c. 1980 | |
| Medium: brass | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA Diploma Collection | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist | |
| Description: Bill Scott lives and works in Roslin, Midlothian and sculpts in a wide variety of materials including wood, marble, bronze, plaster and ceramic ware. Twentieth-Century Pad is a brass sculpture belonging to a series of 'Pads' carried out on a small scale and suggestive of room settings. A figure is situated on a square base among assembled items of a mystic nature. Their careful, deliberate placement gives them a totemic quality; like small-scale versions of ancient standing stones. A staircase ascends into space, while geometric shapes marked on the base seem to offer clues to a puzzle - who is the mysterious figure? A bowl shape contains a curious crystal-like object. This piece has been executed in great detail given its small size. Brass is a pliable metal, allowing smooth edges and soft highlights to be produced. It can also be polished to a bright shine. Although there are still tool marks on this piece, offering texture to the surface, there are areas which have been polished brightly. Try to imagine how differently this piece would look if it was made in bronze with a green patina (no highlights, few shadows, similar overall tones of green) or polished black finish (very bright and pronounced highlights, deep shadows, wider tonal range). This unusual piece looks like some kind of game or puzzle at first glance. The figure is isolated on a mysterious 'pad'. Is there a problem to solve before he can leave the pad? What kind of environment is he in? There appear to be no living natural objects around him at all, no trees, animals or plants. The figure seems alienated from his surroundings, and his strange form suggests a tortured individual. Could this be how Scott views modern life? Are people isolated from each other, alienated from nature and struggling to understand a sterile environment? If you were to create a vision of today's society, or a future society, what features would you focus on? What would be the emotions associated with your vision? | |
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