ARTIST:

Alexander Hoda

Shoehorn
Alexander Hoda
Saddleback
Alexander Hoda
Pile Up
Alexander Hoda
Saddleback
Alexander Hoda
Saddleback
Alexander Hoda
Saddleback
Alexander Hoda
Saddleback
Alexander Hoda
Saddleback
Alexander Hoda

“When I was younger I traipsed around museums like the V&A, and the Rodin Museum in Paris. I saw a lot of classical statues but I was really more interested in the toys in the tourist shops. As I got older I wanted to try and make those interests mould into one thing. The use of rubber in my work was a way to try and find a material that had the same fetishistic appeal as metal but wasn’t. I’ve always been interested in natural history programmes and was brought up, like many kids, on David Attenborough. We have a fascination with animals; they act as a mirror to ourselves. In some ways we’re able to understand the way we act in terms of animals. In Saddleback I wanted there to be an ambiguity between the animals caring for one another but also trying to manipulate each other; it captures an indecisive moment between where caring becomes possessive.”

Pile Up
Alexander Hoda
Pile Up
Alexander Hoda
Pile Up
Alexander Hoda
Pile Up
Alexander Hoda
Pile Up
Alexander Hoda

“Pile Up was inspired by a knick-knack I bought on eBay, a stack of pigs piled one on top of the other; a bizarre but appealing thing. It was like they were emerging out of one form. I had also just visited the Uffizi in Florence where I saw Michelangelo’s The Captives, a series of studies he made where only partial elements of figures appear emerging from stone blocks. I wanted to explore the relationship between these two references. There’s a sexual insinuation in the way the rubber gives an initial binding of the figures, a uniform coating, but also violence in enhancing the dynamics between the forms. With traditional figurative sculpture an artist literally hacks away at something to create or destroy a figure; sculpture is violent. Sculpture is a bodily experience, you are confronted by an object that inhabits the same space as you do.”

Shoehorn
Alexander Hoda
Shoehorn
Alexander Hoda
Shoehorn
Alexander Hoda

“For this piece I wanted to have more of a scene, like the narratives within classicism and mythology, but my own. It’s like a freeze-frame of a moment. I make my sculptures by collaging found objects to form the composition and then coat the entire surfaces with rubber. This is a way to ‘dress up’ the objects, to make them re-perform in a different environment, re-contextualise them with new meanings. The found objects and masks underneath the surfaces give the effect of an inflatable object that’s almost expanded to the point of collapse. In my work I am exploring relationships, desires, and urges, to perceive them in different contexts rather than something that’s conditioned to be guilt-laden or perverted.”

Save Your Cart
Share Your Cart
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop

    Search the Saatchi Gallery website

    Thank you for your enquiry!

    Your message was sent and one of our Admin team will respond as soon as possible.

    If you have an urgent question, please call our front desk on 020 7811 3070.

    For more information on how we store and use your data please view our privacy policy here. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by clicking on the links below the emails we send you.

    Essential Information Before Your Visit:
    Click Plan Your Visit for full information on upcoming closures.

    Register for email updates
    Be the first to hear about the latest Saatchi Gallery exhibitions, events, offers and news