Often failed sculptures are more interesting

<p>This output is a large scale watercolour drawing of a failed and destroyedsculpture, and is accompanied by a reflective essay which explores the importanceof lost forms in sculpture.The output reflects upon the primary importance of the failed-object in sculpturethrough re-imagining the remembered work, now lost. Burge indicates that thelost form might be more profound to the development of one’s practice than thecompleted, exhibited, object. Burge’s output is part of a pair, exhibited togetherin ‘Pebbles and Avalanches’ curated by Clare Charnley. Alongside Burge’sdrawing, hangs a watercolour drawing by sculptor Edward Allington of a failed andlost form from the early 1990s.Allington and Burge worked simultanaeously, but separately, on their owndrawings and upon separate but complementary narratives in the accompanyingcatalogue.Both sculptors reflect upon lost works, and learning about sculpture. The rawenthusiasm of the art student is contrasted to the experienced eye of the sculptor,in the first moment of meeting and seeing a difficult sculpture (later destroyed).The narrative of ‘Often Failed Sculptures are more Interesting’ questions who isteaching whom, when the memory of the object reasserts its impact and re-opensthe possibility of George Kubler’s theory of form as being a future taxonomy ofsculpture.The dialogue of failure has been an increasingly important part of theorisingcontemporary art as evidenced in the writings of Phyllida Barlow and theDocuments of Contemporary Art volume and this output contributes to thisdiscourse.Further, within the multi-authored volume ‘Pebbles and Avalanches’ these essayson form and failure by Burge and Allington, are located alongside a number of theother contributions on pedagogy and art and, taken together, the volumeconstitutes an important reflection upon the intangible nature of learning andteaching in Fine Art.</p>