I made Ultimate Ancestor (Ancestor ) in 2021 for the joy of making and sculpting. Carved with a hand axe, saw and knife it is a half life sized figure of our primeval ultimate ancestor.
The figure started life as a much larger contemporary tourist carving of a military figure which I found on the street near my house. I wanted to change it into a figure which was less threatening and more universally relevant to all. So I disarmed it, removed all military objects, contemporary fabric and symbolism and reclaimed it as a universal figure of our collective ultimate ancestry. Carved, aged, burned, painted, treated with tar, and in parts fragmentary, it is now a timeless universal figure of antiquity.
Ancestor
2021
71 H x 198 L x 41 D CM
Carved, painted and burned wood, steel, pewter and stone
