Numen (Shifting Votive One, Two and Three)

In the “Numen” series Price continues his exploration of a new mythology in which the ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian traditions of monumental sculpture are deployed in the depiction of the twenty-first century social subject.

In an exciting departure from his previous use of cast Bronze, Price has created three large cast aluminium heads raised to eye-level on marble columns. They immediately announce themselves as archetypal objects of worship in a modern age, fashioned from the same fabric as MacBooks, coke cans, cars and planes – a whole array of thoroughly untraditional and un-museumlike objects. Yet, in their emotional depth and arresting monumentality these anonymous portraits assert the value of the depicted subject, powerfully subverting traditional social and aesthetic hierarchies.

Thomas J Price, Numen (Shifting Votive One), Numen (Shifting Votive Two), Numen (Shifting Votive Three), 2016. Copyright the artist, courtesy the artists and Hales Gallery. Photo: © Nick Turpin