Sculpture: history, techniques, and contemporary practice

Sculpture

Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent are a husband and wife team working out of Sebastopol, California. Amiot salvages discarded material, mainly metal, for the use and re-use in the assembly of semi-public art. Laurent paints the sculptures and provides the detailing that, according to the artists' website, brings them to life. The work of Amiot and Laurent can be too easily dismissed as lowbrow, when in fact, the underlying meaning and message of the sculptures is one that is socially conscious and politically profound.

Most of the Amiot and Laurent sculptures are figurative and representational. Although there are abstract elements in each of the compositions, they each depict either a fictitious or historical figure. For example, the sculptures on display in Sebastopol include one of Yankees legend Babe Ruth. Batman also makes an appearance in a Amiot and Laurant sculpture garden.

What makes the Amiot and Laurent sculpture garden remarkable is the fact that it is not housed in a formal museum or gallery; and yet the work is also not sponsored by the municipality or on display in a public park. Rather, private homes have on display the works of Amiot and Laurent, which points to a new vision of art as a communal enterprise.

The central political theme of Amiot and Laurent sculptures is sustainability. Using and re-using discarded materials are central ways the artists urge consumers to rethink their relationship with manufactured goods. Many of the materials used to create an Amiot and Laurent composition are salvaged from auto yards: hence the prevalent hubcaps and other heavy metal materials used in the sculptures.

For the most part, there are no direct connections between the actual materials used and the subject matter or theme of the compositions. Telephones find their way onto sculptures depicting waitresses carrying trays of food; oil drums become the body of Batman.

However, the nature of the materials used in the Amiot and Laurent sculptures -- what is essentially garbage-- begs the viewer to pay close attention to the former life of the parts. What is remarkable about Amiot and Laurent work is the way that theoretically and formally disparate objects find their way into the same unified composition. Although the materials used are circumstantial if not wholly arbitrary or haphazard, the finished product never appears disjointed. Each piece does come alive and has a playful spirit that belies the political message underneath.

Amiot and Laurent are accomplishing two main goals with their sculptures. The first goal is raising awareness about the role public art plays in the community. The second goal is promoting awareness of consumer culture. At no point do the Amiot and Laurent sculptures appear pedantic, either. There is no sign painted onto a sculpture saying "reuse, renew, recycle!" In fact, the mundane nature of the sculptures hearkens to a childlike sense of wonder that makes the viewer forget about environmental degradation.

In California, equal parts environmental degradation and environmental awareness play out on the political stage. The artists seem keenly aware of their geographical presence. Their sculptures adorn nearly every house on Florence Avenue in Sebastopol. Yet their message is not limited to the artists' own place of residence; the Amiot and Laurent sculptures can be seen throughout Sonoma County, California: a place known more for its wine than its art. While Los Angeles and surrounding counties are more notorious for their pollution than Sonoma and Napa, California as a whole has every reason to support artists with environmental ethics.

Some of the Amiot and Laurent sculptures tell stories: the waitress carrying her tray of spaghetti and meatballs is stressed out during a hard day of work; the baseball pitchers are concentrating hard; and the sailor gazes to see in search of bounty. More important from the artists' perspective is the story of the materials and media. Every bit, every nut, bolt, and hubcap came from somewhere. Miners risked their lives harvesting the raw materials used to send thousands of miles away to manufacture objects that had been designed weeks or months before by engineers. Workers slaved away in factories to manufacture those items, and marketing executives designed plans by which to promote the products. Pieces of an organic whole, these parts like hubcaps then made their way onto larger objects, which were once again peddled on the open market and sold to needful consumers. Once the consumer tired of the product, it was discarded. Instead of letting landfills grow larger, Amiot salvaged the materials and conceptualized designs made from disparate pieces and parts.