bronze and steel

Artwork date: 1985
Signature details: signed and dated

(1)

180 x 73 x 60 cm

Notes:

Edoardo Villa returned over and over again to the key subjects of incarceration and its corollary, liberation. Series, or groups of such works, in particular the Prisoner, or the Open Door group, show Villa using stylized human forms to comment on key aspects of the human condition. An important visual difference between these groups is how he realized the state of liberation – where forced incarceration becomes a moment of change and possibility. One of the two most important works of the Prisoner group, a barred and aggressive form shown on the WITS campus in 1984, alludes to a country under severe socio-political turmoil, where the captor is struggling for freedom. The constrained forms are overt in the notion of threat and impingement. The windows with bars suggest horizontal and vertical ladders, the concepts of movement impossible for the captive. In the other work, a monumental sculpture in steel from 1983, there are angular forms that are sharp and aggressive. However the spire that projects from the top of the piece is symbolic of a movement upward, a liberation from the box like incarceration where there is a limited and controlled view.It bears remembering that Villa himself was a prisoner of war in World War II, imprisoned at Zonderwater camp sometime between 1941 and 1942. He speaks from experience of both incarceration and liberation.

Villa presents many variations on the subject: 1 Figure, 19801. This is the first cast part of the steel sculpture Edition 1-3/3 and two Artist Proofs, Renzo Vignali Foundry. It is part steel and part bronze - two aspects of the whole, comprising an architectural context in steel - and a human presence in bronze. 2 In another variation of the same figures, there is Group (1985)2, Edition 1-6 plus two Artist Proofs, also cast at the Renzo Vignali Foundry. Here, the two figures stand alongside each other devoid of the confines of a box. 3 Lastly, the monumental work Open Door (1984)3, steel, 260cm, is done just a year after the rest of the Prison series and a year before Liberation (1985). This work is colossal and ironically would present a space of severe confinement had its doors been able to close. The figure is bursting forth and there are no barred windows but rather very small unpleasant looking apertures - almost a viewpoint that doesn’t have the possibility of any liberation. The work on auction, Liberation (1985) provides a view of afigure which may be ascending or descending the steps. Thepresence of steps leading both in and out of the space is also present in Figure [Open Door] (1985) which might also havebeen an extension of the concept of the box, but is certainlyexpressive of liberated viewpoint.

Mary-Jane Darroll and James Sey

Sources:

1 De Klerk, C. & De Kamper, G. (2012). A comprehensive reference tothe castings of Villa in Bronze. Pretoria: University of Pretoria, p.103

2 ibid., p.67.

3 Nel, K, Burroughs, E. & Von Maltitz, A. (eds.) (2005). Villa at 90.Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, p.23.