About the Artwork

Please note this artwork is no longer on display.

Climb was made from the inside out. The sculpture is an obelisk made inside a tall wooden column filled with nearly three tons of wet clay. Starting at the base of this structure the artist physically dug her way upwards through the center of the material, leaving behind a vertical tunnel. The surface of the clay inside was marked by imprints of her knees, feet, elbows, fingers and hands as she worked her way up. Once the artist reached the top of this column of clay she cast the tunnel she’d made in a mixture of plaster and acrylic. The cast, which turned the negative space left by her actions into a shape, was then excavated out from underneath the remaining clay. Only then was the sculpture revealed for the first time, like a photograph developed from film.

 

Artist interview

 

Year: 2012


Copyright the artist.

Material

Forton MG, steel, urethane foam

Dimensions

366 x 61 x 56 cm

Artist Biography

Juliana Cerqueira Leite

Juliana Cerqueira Leite is an award winning Brazilian sculptor based in New York. Leite has exhibited her work in group shows internationally in venues including the Saatchi Gallery and Courtauld Art Institute (London), the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, Cass Sculpture Foundation (UK) and the Marres House for Contemporary Culture (Maastricht, NL). Solo shows include Instituto Tomie Ohtake (São Paulo), T.J. Boulting Gallery (London), Alma Zevi (Venice), Galeria Casa Triângulo (São Paulo), Regina Rex and AIR Gallery, (New York). Leite graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art MFA in London in 2006, as recipient of the Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize.