Our World

Our World

Our World

By: Bill Woodrow, 1997
Medium: cast bronze
Size: 50 x 35mm
Cast by: Niagara Falls Casting
Edition: 65

Category:

Born in 1948, Bill Woodrow attended Winchester School of Art (1967-8), St Martin’s School of Art (1968-71) and Chelsea School of Art (1971-72). His first solo exhibition was at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1972, since when he has shown his work all over the world. His most recent shows include the Tate Gallery exhibition of 1996, and others in the United States, Ireland, Japan, Russia, Italy and France. He lives and works in south London. Woodrow is a most intriguing and inventive sculptor. From his discarded machinery metal cut outs of the 1980s to his more recent near-monumental cast bronze pieces, he never ceases to engage with the concerns of contemporary society. His medal for BAMS, Our World, treats the subject of the relationship between the sexes both directly and sensitively. This century has had the benefit and insight (although some might not see it in quite those terms) of psychoanalysis, which explores the interrelation between the mind and sexuality. In Our World, Woodrow has taken the mind (the brain) as the container for the male and female sexual attributes, which, when they fit together, form a united whole. By these means he suggests the mystery of both sexuality and the mind. It is a medal in two parts, perhaps symbolising the way humanity is divided into two. It can be seen as containing an intimate secret of knowing another human being, both in a sexual sense, and also through the mind. The ancient Romans used the phallus as a good luck symbol on gold rings, including even tiny ones for children, who they felt were particularly vulnerable to the forces of evil. In artistic terms it is an exquisite medal to hold, to carry in the pocket; it is sensual and suggestive.