"Cloud" Large suspended sculpture

Large sculpture in hand hammered aluminum suspended to the ceiling from 9 points of clear wire.

In his sculpture, furniture and jewelry, Jarrige has always explored the relationship between line and space, volume and void. In each medium a gestural, often hesitant line strives to embrace an elusive volume. The tension created between minimal solid shapes and an expansive open space is at the heart of these three-dimensional drawings. Then there is a spacial element: a slow development feeling its way into emptiness, unguided by any preliminary sketches. The sculpture transmits a sense of vulnerability, inflecting a decisive physical presence with a gestural expressiveness.

Jarrige also has a curiosity for poor materials and their untapped potential. Hammering a relatively modest metal repeatedly has the functional purpose of annealing and shaping the material that is otherwise soft and malleable, as well as giving it a luminous presence. The surface carries a memory matrix of the energy spent on laboring it. The repetitive process engages the artist in a meditative, call-and-response-like dialogue with the metal. It is the presence of the artist’s gesture that allows for a meaningful dialogue between Cloud and the viewer.