![]() ![]() Underscoring the contradictions inherent in each one of us and in the world around us, Newton asks viewers to contemplate the meaning of commonplace objects that populate our consumer society, subverting their symbolic value in a mischievous manner. Sometimes he’ll make a sculpture 10 times before he’s satisfied with it in a process he qualifies as “between meditation and masochism”. The rocket launcher comprises approximately 2,500 pencils, while the skull required 1,500 pencils and three weeks of 12-hour days to produce, excluding the planning and design stages and the construction of the first prototype. Newton’s works aim to offer a different way of thinking about everyday life that viewers can then use to make their own judgements Making painstaking work look easy, his sculptures’ slick, clinical aesthetic belies the complexity, time and energy demanded for their construction, as each new piece is a long-term undertaking, taking up to one month to build. He would have no choice but to start again. Once Newton has glued the pencils together, it’s impossible to backtrack and undo what has been done. Pencils embodying the power of creation and imagination became symbols of resistance and freedom of expression in France, and through his pieces in which violence and innocence converge, he unites what initially appears to be diametrically opposed.Ī technique encompassing repetition, precision and patience, there’s no room for error. Neither firearms nor children’s toys, these assembled drawing instruments have been stripped of their functionality and reduced to useless tools, transformed into sculptures that have become Luke Newton’s signature works ever since the 2015 terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris left 12 dead.
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