STATUE & DAVID

This hand carved Virgin Mary was given to David’s mother after a skiing trip in Austria. It’s striking because, although he’s an obsessive collector of objects, the statue conforms to none of David’s normal criteria. Generally his objects are designed for a very particular function but often their use can’t be easily identified – from what appears to be an enlarged, skeletal, cane cigar (a Filipino fish trap) to a dunce’s cap made from solid wood (actually a device for shaping organ pipes). The statue is all the more poignant then for standing apart from his collection and more poignant still since he found it, evidently treasured, in his mother’s house just after her death. He had given it to her over fifty years earlier.

19 Jun 2011