Black Men, White Faces.

   These sculptures of ‘just over life-sized’ men, stood life-like and naked, with black bodies and white faces, immediately make one feel uneasy in their presence. How so, is rather difficult to pinpoint. The detail of the figures and accuracy of their form gives them, almost, humanistic existence, if a passer by caught a glimpse of one of these figures in the corner of their eye, they would not be deemed insane for mistaking it for a person.

   However, a sculpture that resembles the human form does not necessarily have to possess an ominous nature, these figures, however, do. There are a number of qualities possessed by the figures that render their form different to our own. It is these differences that make a viewer feel uneasy, fearful of the unfamiliar.

   The faces, for example, have oversized and over exaggerated features similar to that of a child’s drawing; ignoring the technical and literal formation of a human face and visualizing the features as they are perceived rather than as they exist.

   Other factors of the figures contribute to their overall ‘mystical’ existence such as; white faces on black bodies or slightly imperfect, ‘sculpted’ figures. The effect of these sculptures is not simply a result of how similar they appear to human beings or how different. The effect exists due to an effective balance of both.