Raphael Weilguni |2

Making a life-size statue was quite a challenge for Raphael Weilguni. His work usually only relates to the body in an abstract, fragmentary way: bones, organs, skin, digits growing in different directions, unsure where to stop. Now he had to start at the feet and end at the head. For reference Weilguni looked at Thomas Schutte’s figures in the nearby De Pont Museum. He studied his own body, incorporated traits and features of friends. The resulting ruthless self-portrait is reminiscent of Egyptian sculptures with their one extended arm. It calls to mind Umberto Boccioni’s futurist bronze of a man confidently striding, blazing forwards. In contrast, Weilguni’s figure is an aging infant, unsure on his feet, hesitant, but unable to stop moving. An odd architectural void punctures his leg and abdomen, openings at the mouth and ear emphasise the sculpture as an empty shell – or a vessel for the soul.

Weilguni’s sculptural process began with making gouache paintings — small, beautiful and rough versions of the sculpture(s) he envisioned. The building process began, as mentioned, with the feet and consideration into how the work could eventually be installed outdoors, safety embedded beneath the ground in concrete. As the sculpture took form, Weilguni responded to it, working carefully and methodically on details and texture/feel. As with his previous residency, Weilguni spent a considerable amount of time on glaze research — finding just the right percentage of pigment to add to EKWC’s STM, for example, to make it convey the idea of denim.