Oscar Abba

Question:

At a glance Oscar Abba's pieces could be mistaken for bits of scrambled metal scratched out of a metal recycling bin! On closer inspection one notices meticulous precision in manufacture and craft. 


Write 300 words analysing the above 3 pieces. Some of the following concepts may help you with your discussion; preciousness (in material and form), abstract use of form, relationship of craft (technique) and design, surprise and contrast.

Answer:

If I look at Oscars work as a whole these pieces sort of look a little random and not very well thought out, almost like he had made them in a few seconds with no real planning or effort, but if you look at the closer you will find that a lot of thought has gone into these pieces, where every individual piece needs to be soldered and how every individual piece would be placed.

The collection as a whole has a very organic and curvilinear feel. Oscar has places the individual elements of each piece together in such a way that he has created form and volume in each piece. Volume has also been created in the way each individual piece of metal has been sculpted and formed. He has used form in a very abstract way which I think has been very effective. The pieces as a whole are very pleasing to the eye because they are so organic and the use of metal to form curvilinear lines form pathways for our eyes to follow. This also leads to the pieces having continuity, there is no place the eye is lead to that is a dead end the lines continue following the sculpted metal around the piece. The technique he has used to masterfully sculpt the metal to portray the idea of paper is been very effectively achieved. There is also an element of contrast that he has used between paper and metal, paper is soft and can be effortlessly formed and will not hold its form very easily, whereas metal is very hard and takes a lot of work to be sculpted into different shapes and will hold its form. Another contrast created between paper and metal is that paper is perceived as very light whereas metal is thought of as being heavy.

I think Oscar has very effectively and masterfully created a collection that is unusual. A collection that has form and body, without weight.