British sculptor Stephen Cox is known for his monolithic sculptures created out of indigenous materials drawing on history and culture of the local setting. He has used Italian and Egyptian stones, he has worked in the Carrara, the marble quarries in Italy and was also the first artist to gain access to the Imperial Porphyry quarries in the eastern mountains of Egypt. In 1986 Cox came to India to represent Britain at the sixth Triennale in India. A royal academician, he has made site specific sculptures in Italy, he went to Mahabalipuram to make a sculpture. Since then he has lived between Britain and India working out of a studio in Mahabalipuram from where he has consistently produced sculptures. A few days after the installation of his latest public sculpture from Mahabalipuram in London, Cox takes some time out to explain his practice and different influences – including the stone carving tradition of India – that have enriched it, in an email interview.
Edited excerpts:
Latest public sculpture from Mahabalipuram in London
“Relief: Figure Emerging with Inscribed Rail to Lutyens” is the latest sculpture to be installed in London. It is in Apple Tree Yard and is dedicated to Edwin Lutyens who designed New Delhi from his studio here. The sculpture is carved from an 18 tonne block of stone from near Kanchipuram although the finished sculpture is about 10 tonnes. It is based on the carvings found inside the mountains in Ellora, Ajanta and Elephanta. Mahabalipuram’s magnificent carvings are a constant source of inspiration where the naturalism of the figures can stand next to the greatest carving ever made.
Mahabalipuram and interaction with sthapaties – temple architects
It has been 30 years since my first visit. The young interpreter and helper has helped me ever since I finished my few months at the college. I stayed as guest of the Tamil Tourism Development Corporation at their beach resort and I stay there still. Serendipity occurred when a strip of land was left to Arunachalam by his father. It was across the road from the hotel. I helped him get started and it has been my workplace ever since. The silpis, the carvers, are generally itinerant and Arun arranges workers from all over Tamil Nadu.
His experiences in quarries
The most important factor for me when first visiting the quarries was that I was witnessing the most potent vision of Man in ‘contest’ with nature. I realised this was a somewhat romantic view as I watched stick thin, naked men with noble modesty wrestlewith the Earth to release monoliths by hand. The rudimentary tools of hammer, chisel and bar were used with wily skill to bring out the beast. The zip like perforations that would with puny force generate the lightening strike after tap, tap repetition would torture the vast stone to release its hold on the Earth. Many of my sculptures evidence the scars of the tearing away of the stone from the mass. I like the finished work to show the signs of the sculpture’s making.
The impact of stone carving tradition on him
I was guest of the Tamil Nadu Department of Education at the College of Architecture and Sculpture. Its principal was the famous Ganapathi Sthapathi. I arrived on the day of Idya Puja, the feast of Saraswati, the Goddess of work. It was a holiday and all the tools and anything that moved was slashed with bright red kumkum and golden yellow sandal paste. For my Western upbringing it was a manifestation of belief and devotion in everyday life of people. I was given a hammer and chisel and invited to strike a block as a part of a ceremonial gesture.
Ganapathi Sthapati showed me — a pointed spike of charcoal — something which has stayed with me. It was, he said, ‘the most important of our tools’. The importance of drawing links both our cultures. On the day I began work I was shown the palm-roofed open walled workshop and given a chair and table where I could develop my drawings for my first project. I was also introduced to a young graduate as an interpreter called Arunachalam who would also help me carve. What drew me to working here was the scale of the work. Great blocks were stored around the compound — some with red oxidized crust with little zip marks from the steel wedges that had cleaved the blocks from the quarry that drew onto the stones the origin and contour of its landscape. What really inspired me was that I found myself working in an ancient tradition in the 20th century. As a contemporary artist who saw in the past lessons for the future, an increasing belief in the deeper my roots descended. I was in a unique place where the meaning of the carving had profound meaning for devotional practice. It was the origin of all art.
His first sculpture and other significant work inspired by Mahabalipuram
My first sculpture, I am happy to inform, is still in India and installed at the entrance of the British Council Office in Chennai. It is called ‘Etruscan’. Of the several identifiable cultures that existed in Italy the Etruscan civilisation was of great interest to me for a number of years. Just before I was invited to India I had produced drawings that were based upon an oval shield with eyes that I had seen in Viterbo. I wished to make four shields that had separately eyes, ears, mouth and nose, the idea being that the experience of seeing the original shield had a strong hypnotic hold. Within that form I wanted experiment to see if other senses could be intensified by a strong image of each. While working on it I became aware of ‘tanmatras’ and that the five senses in Samkaya had correspondence with Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. This prompted an ongoing involvement with this idea, the oval being strongly related to the lingam. Since then I have produced about 100 sculptures which are in museums, public spaces and private collections around the world.
