Howard Schatz Inspires Yin Yang Figurative Sculpture

I have long been inspired by photographers of the nude, and one in particular is Howard Schatz. He produced a collection of photos called “Body Knots” and this is where I took inspiration for this sculpture, “Bodyknot – Yin Yang”.

This sculpture is carved from a variety of Carrara white marble from the Petacchi quarry and is another piece from my 2008 Italian Collection. I began work on this sculpture while I worked at Studio SEM in Pietrasanta, Italy for the month of September 2008 and I finished the piece back in Vancouver.

The composition is a disk shape, with high relief carving on each side. One side shows a three quarter back view of a male and female torso. Each is seemingly sitting in the other’s lap and each figure’s right arm is extended down the other’s back. The image emulates the Taoist symbol of yin yang, which I have carved on the reverse side of the sculpture.

Yin yang is the depiction of the opposites of female & male, light & dark, soft & hard and how they are inter-woven to form the circle of completeness which is the outside edge of the symbol and of this sculpture. Yin literally means the dark, north slope and yang is the sunny south slope. As the sun moves across the sky, the two gradually trade places each day, revealing what is obscured and obscuring what is revealed.

I have mounted the sculpture on a red granite base and a steel pin allows the viewer to turn the piece so one can see both sides.