Sculptures

Latest Hand Crafted Sculptures

My sculpture work includes bowls/vessels, busts, animals and human figures.
I do the original work in artist-plasticine/ceramic clay.

Bronze Bowl- and Vessel collection (Animals)

The inspiration for The Bronze Bowl and Vessel Collection comes from a historical tradition that many cultures have practised through the ages to fashion artistic vessels/bowls using bronze. These range, for example, from the “Singing Bowls” (Tibet, Japan, Nepal, etc.), the bronze bowls from the Ming dynasty and bowls/vessels from ancient Greek and Roman times to bronze bowls with Egyptian motives (found in 1849) in northern Iraq. His Bronze Bowl and Vessel Collection mostly features “less familiar animals”. Each item represents a metaphor and has a story/fable to it.

The Bronze Bowl and Vessel Collection was first exhibited in 2005 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, at the well-known Dorpstraat Gallery, and also 2 pieces at the Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town, and others. The bronzes are limited to 15 Editions with each piece having the artist’s name and foundry stamp; and can be ordered from the artist.

Looking-Up

The influences and exploration in this series relates to an “angst”, a “shaking” that is happening worldwide. There is a worldwide anticipation of something that’s coming that we somehow cannot quite explain, combined with a disappointment in political leaders and the materialistic. In these uncertain times, man will hopefully start to look beyond the physical and “upwards” to fill the “God-shaped” vacuum that is in its design. However, consumerism and the lies that the worldwide mass media is feeding us, blinding us from the truth, make it difficult to … “look up”.

Performers

He recently started to incorporate the human form as metaphor in his artwork – exploring the influence of mass media and “social engineering” on the global population, while the new “Performers” sculpture series also digs into these themes. With the “Performers”, Francois aims to invite the viewer to play with and interact with the artwork, much like figurine toys, to discover further meaning and metaphors. This is in contrast with sculptural artworks that sometimes have a very “static” feel or a “don’t touch” stigma attached to them, as often found in old museums. With this series, he attempts to challenge this mind-set, bringing the sculpture “closer” to the observer.