Bird In Flight (v3 reprise)
This work is the third sculpture of mine to be influenced by Constantin Brancusi’s “Bird in Space” series of sculptures. His were completed in the 1920’s–1940’s and were inspired more by an exploratory interpretation of a bird’s characteristics when flying rather than capturing a literal physical likeness. My reaction to Brancusi’s work was an inspirational one—specifically, to his approach of simplification of organic form but not an interpretation of a bird in flight.
My first attempt—V1, was completed in 1976 and the second—V2, in 2020). V2 also relates to the COVID pandemic, and was completed at the very end of the “Before Time”—immediately before the collective awareness of this virus had sunk in. “Bird in Flight, v.2” therefore marks a time, a transition point, which stands in sharp contrast to the times before it as well as the times we faced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This third attempt, V3, was completed in the spring of 2022. In addition to Brancusi’s original formal influence, it—like V2—also marks a time, a turning point. V3, is not meant to literally symbolize a bird flying, COVID or anything else, but instead it is the fact that this version of the series was created at a time when we all simply wanted COVID to be over. We feel we have the right that it be over. We want to move on. This is a form of organic evolution and the main formal goal of this sculpture.
