This sculpture is part of a body of work that includes a collection of fish, Primordial (2016), of horses, Primal (2013), and birds, Primitive (2011) all cast in bronze. The groupings of creatures from sea, land, and air represent the wider world and encapsulate the trinity of themes — natural phenomena, Romanticism and existentialism — that underpin the artist’s oeuvre.
Each animal is unique, hand-modeled by the artist in clay before being cast into bronze. The roughness of the process means that fingerprints are still visible in the bronze, calling attention to the individuality of each sculpture and the manner of its creation. Rondinone has spoken of how each sculpture “represents the emotional situation of the time I made them,” and how the traces of his personal touch give them an immediacy that should speak directly to the viewer.
这件雕塑属于一系列小型动物雕塑作品的一部分:鸟,《primitive》(2011年)、马,《primal》(2013年)和鱼,《primordial 》(2016年),所有都是用青铜铸造。来自陆地、空中和海洋的生物群体代表了更广阔的世界,且包含他作品的基本主题:自然现象、浪漫主义和存在主义。
在视觉上,这批动物雕塑所探索的基本主题通过其诚实和朴实的美学得以强调。每匹马都是独一无二的,由艺术家用粘土塑造,然后铸成青铜,没有抛光,保持了原始状态。过程的粗糙意味着青铜中仍然可以看到艺术家的指纹,从而引起人们对每件雕塑的个性及其创作方式的关注。罗迪纳曾谈及每件雕塑如何“代表我创作他们时的情感状态”,以及他个人风格的痕迹如何给予他们与观众直接对话的即时性。