Halsey Rodman - Contemporary Artists

Navigator Two

Navigator Two The Saatchi Gallery
 

Halsey Rodman

Navigator Two

2007
Self-hardening clay, epoxy putty, hexagonal aluminum bar, paint

38 x 91.4 x 201 cm

Navigator Twois a piece that was specially commissioned by the Saatchi Gallery. The coincidental timing of this commission played an integral part of the sculpture’s concept, allowing Rodman to recreate a 2006event and sculpture titledNavigator, where in creating a self-portrait he employed 12 people to act as ‘multipliers’, each making 2 body parts that were later used to construct 2 figures. The body ofNavigatorwas assembled on 2 separate tiers, physically creating a mirrored image. Using this idea of doubling, Rodman staged the making ofNavigator Twoexactly one year to the date of the first event, using the same people in the same clothes. The resulting sculpture is not an exact duplicate; its subtle differences record a repeated visual form and the action of its construction. Through collaboration Rodman engages with the concept of self-portrait (or experience of self) as a fabrication of external perception. As Rodman explains:"The fragmented vision of the multipliers mirrors our own experience of our body. Though we can apprehend our body in reflection, the direct experience of our body feels completely different. It is fragmentary, somewhat awkward and definitely at odds with the way we perceive others to perceive us as a unified form."
 
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