Tunga has often been referred to as a “contemporary alchemist” due to his unusual and enigmatic uses of diverse materials employed in direct response to the cultural context of his native Brazil. Element S presents a steel vertical armature with fired terra-cotta pots that recall caldrons or primitive containers, as well as fingers or bulbous body parts. The rich umber color of these clay pieces contrasts with the bright blue of the long spoon that extends outward from the center of the piece. Mystical objects such as bronze and quartz crystals also comprise this assemblage, emerging from both the top and bottom with their cool, sharp edges and reflective surfaces, distinctly opposing the warmth of the other materials. The overall installation portrays a structure that recalls ritual practices and ancient ceremonial displays.
Identification
Title
Element S
Production Date
2014
Object Number
2016.28
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by PAMM’s Collectors Council
Element S is one of six pieces from a larger series, created in 2014 by artist TUNGA. It is made of iron, steel, bronze, quartz crystal, plaster, rubber, yellow quartz crystals, and linen. This sculpture stands about eight feet tall and is roughly four feet in diameter. This structure is a three-dimensional piece made up of several stacked terracotta clay pots suspended in a column-like arrangement. Three thick brown metal rings of varying circumferences encircle the clay pots. Starting at the top, the highest ring in this arrangement is a little larger than a steering wheel. The middle ring is only about two feet down from the first ring, but is much larger, about the size of a hula hoop. The bottom ring is close to the gallery floor, only around a foot from the bottom of the sculpture. The clay pots are attached to the rings with a system of thin metal hooks. These hooks also connect the top ring to the middle and largest ring, and three hooks connect the middle ring to the bottom ring. Stretching from the gallery floor up the full length of the sculpture, are three vertical metal rods, giving the sculpture a triangular and conical composition.
Starting at the top again, a large brown quartz crystal stone about one foot long is visible, suspended within the negative space of the sculpture. Wedged beside it inside the top ring is a white plaster circular lid-shaped object. A metal pole juts nearly vertically out from the center of the middle ring, and through the top ring. It extends a foot past the quartz rock. This metal pole looks like a raised arm shooting up from a shoulder. It has an illustrated cloth draping down like a flag. There is another long projection from the central column of rings and clay pots. This second “arm” is a teal spoon-like shape. It is long and thin and looks like weathered, verdigris copper. The bowl of the spoon cups the rounded bottom of the second terracotta pot. The spoon’s long thin handle rests on the middle ring and projects about three feet from the main body of the sculpture. The two projections form a right angle, almost like a person holding both their arms out at in a tilted “L” shape.
The third and largest beaker shaped clay pot faces down like a big flared skirt hovering over two terracotta tubes on the floor. The two tubes also face down and look like crossed legs under the figure of terracotta, stone, and metal. Spilling out onto the floor from each of the “legs” are dozens of small peach colored quartz rock crystals. The abstracted and dismembered figure looks like it is in motion, as if there were a kinetic aspect to it. The suspense created by the levers and hooks holding up the clay pots allows viewers to question the stability of the structure while pondering what it would take to collapse the structure.
Tunga
Tunga — b. 1952, Palmares, Brazil; d. 2016, Rio de Janeiro Artist Page
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