In our last Kick-About, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva prompted responses to architectural abstractions and expansive, unfolding interiors. This week, out muse is Alexander Calder’s Goldfish Bowl, a miniature, self-contained world of wire, movement, and humour. As always, the works that follow were made in a short time, and for all previous editions of The Kick-About, go here.
James Randall
“Seemed to just take off by itself. I didn’t really plan anything. Nice to keep the elements simple. The first two just about did themselves, and the third ended up struggling its way out.”
Kerfe Roig
“My first impulse was to do a collage, but most of my collage paper is in storage. The wire reminded me of contour drawing, so I did some fish in that style, loosely based on an old collage. I then added colour, but the original black-and-white version was best. I have a photo of a fish plate in a triskele style and thought that would work well as a contour drawing too. The fish ended up reminding me of birds, and I wrote a poem about it.”
evolution
swimming is like flying–
weightless, the material world
falls away, disappears
beyond up or down
in all directions, surrounded
by invisible currents
free of gravity
maps clocks calendars expectations–
ancient and whole
Tom Beg
“This round’s submission…”
Phil Gomm
“We grow Lunaria annua in our garden, commonly known as honesty. After flowering, the plant produces silicles: translucent, pearly seed pods that have inspired a host of evocative common names, including Judas’s Penny, Money-in-Both-Pockets, Penny Flower, Silver Plate, and Peter’s Pence, all inspired by their shimmering, coin-like appearance. They also remind me of certain sea creatures—comb jellies, salps, or even diatoms—hence my decision to create “a shoal of silicles” as my response to Calder’s Goldfish Bowl. I’d not worked with resin before, but found the process of using it to encapsulate the dried, silk-like discs to be dangerously addictive. I used a silicone mould that ensured the finished discs popped out with a handy hole for suspending them, and I sourced one of those simple wire mobile frames designed for displaying photographs. The resulting mobile is now hanging in the corner of my home office, and I’m looking over at it as I write these words, enjoying the way it catches the light.”
philgomm.com / behance.net/Phil_Gomm
Next time, we swivel one watchful eye to the work of Odilon Redon…
Red's Kingdom 
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