Dystopia
Date made: 2020
Artist: Jones, Robert
Description: 'Dystopia' by Robert Jones, 2020. Predominantly recycled mild steel, cast iron and greenheart wood.
"Dystopia' was created during lockdown in 2020 when the world was turned upside down due to COVID-19 and growing public awareness of climate change. The social and economic pressures felt globally as well as personally, revealed themselves directly in my artwork during this time. All of the pieces created during this period and to date have a compressed feel and an industrial, constructivist look. These pieces contrast starkly with my work from pre-COVID times, which were often tall slim, and feminine in feel, and often organic in their curved forms.
Of all the pieces I made during this time none are more directly linked in my mind to the first COVID lockdown than 'Dystopia'. The inspiration for this work came from a series of dreams I was having at the time - images of a burnt-out world, full of waste, toxic in nature and the skies dark and void of any birds. During my waking hours these dreams and images stayed with me more so than usual, possibly due to less distractions and more time to analyse and digest my thoughts. The result is a piece of work that reflects all of these feelings; part broken machinery, part military destruction. There are shapes familiar from modern warfare, albeit burnt out and decayed.
The work was constructed out of found objects; cast iron feeding troughs, shipping container lifting links and canisters alongside industrial steel off cuts and some of my own fabricated pieces. The work sits on its own wooden plinth, which itself is as much a part of the sculpture as the steel aspect of the work. The wood is greenheart, a timber used predominantly on structures that would be immersed in water for long periods of time. This particular piece was originally part of Ramsey harbour wall, and its rough unfinished nature is virtually as found, complementing the rest of the sculpture in nature.
It's a modern take on constructivism, created in an alien environment. It's not intended to be a light-hearted piece of work. Its sole purpose is to mark an extreme period in the lives of those who are living through this rather dark uncertain time. On this occasion it is a war against an unseen virus, and the accelerating chaos of climate change, as opposed to an enemy we can see and relate to." (Robert Jones.)
Materials: cast iron, greenheart wood, steel
Object name: sculpture
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 2021-0045
Subject tags : #MM100COLLECTIONS
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