M.L. SNOWDEN SCULPTURE
THE TERRESTRIAL FORUM

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Nearly one ton of bronze is powered by Sculptor M.L. Snowden in this central transept of the Cataclasis monumental triad. Here in Cataclasis Active Energy Fragment, we meet a larger-than-life sculptural element that completes the cycle of radiant energies evinced in the original ground-breaking work, Cataclasis Study. The primary sculptural energies cycling through Latent Energy and Emerging Energy find fullest expression in this Active Energy Element that reaches out past the boundaries of its bronze to touch upon concepts of transformation and transcendence.

 

Puzzle locking to its complementary pair of elements, Active Energy completes a ring of universal energy, forming transiting seasons of age found across the cosmos, from stars, to rocks to humans to the very bronze of the sculpture. Within the monumental focus of the work is found Emerging youth, Active middle age and Latent old age without any traditional reference to physicality save gestural energy states. Here in Active, a sense of fullest exertion is realized through the out-thrust reach of the figural summary that leads the entire weight of the sculptural mass in its wake. Snowden is possessed of an ability to connect intellectual intention to empowering gesture, writing full complements of action and mentation into the deepest layers of bronze. Within Snowden’s art, ephemeral states of energy become clear in a technique that allows bronze to accentuate its own propensities toward form.

 

Using no models or references to express form, Snowden sculpts Cataclasis Active Energy along the major thrusting line of its action, propelling the figuration to form striations of molten bronze that coalesce into wings. The drama of the element is written not only in advanced sequences of musculature but throughout the abstraction that expressively writes powerful stratas of mass. Through articulate handwork upon the girth of Cataclasis Active, the sculptor imbues the action of the work with a gravid monumental force. Here, Snowden’s masterful and remarkable sculptural abilities become clarified in the sheer technical elan that distinguishes the work. In an evocation that is neither overstated nor under-realized, Snowden is that unique and particular sculptor who completely orchestrates the mediums of clay and bronze into unified plateaus of lucid communication.