TOTEMS

Lirrminginging by Yidumduma Bill Harney (wood, natural pigments, fibre,feathers)

I read somewhere that totem poles are long sticks that tell a story. Put simply, that is exactly what they are. I've been carving totem poles since my teens though my first totems were based on the North American Indian totems. Completely different to what I do now. I was always on the lookout for anything totem related but the only information I ever found was about the Native American totems. Now having access to the internet I'm amazed at the different interpretations I have found.

Columns by David Nash

Gavin Young's typographic tree sculptures installed in Crawley Library

Fourteen oak trunks were used to display carved passages of text from literature within Crawley Library. The lettering on the trees is sandblasted out of the wood. Read the story here.

Totem IX by Ralph Holker

"Among Native American people's totems represented the clan and it's ancestors through an animal or natural object related by blood and taken as its symbol. The clay and the abstract carvings of these Totems are my connection to the natural symbols and the artists of the past" - Ralph Holker

Totem (2 piece) in clay by Louise Gelderblom, South Africa

"Louise Gelderblom’s sculptural vessels are handmade in Cape Town, South Africa. While the working methods are firmly rooted in an African clay tradition, the work is part of an urban contemporary aesthetic."

"I only coil, because when I coil it feels like I am busy drawing in three dimensions. The shape of the piece and the surface markings on it create a rhythm, a percussion beat that I think of as a wordless tactile language." - Louise Gelderblom

Totem (made with scrap metal) by Meagan Wainwright

Moon Spot Totem, waxed linen, iron and brass by Mary Giles

Totemobile, painted steel by Louis Fatta

" I work from large gage steel sheet and I-beam, 1/4” to 1” thick, cutting silhouetted images of objects such as cars, cities, birds, plants, and ants. My work involves the environment formed by the automobile and related elements of the urban surroundings and explores their relationship with nature. The works present themselves as artifacts enduring time, seeking to atone themselves with nature through their deterioration. My sculpture touches upon the imprint these images have left on our psyche, awakening personal and emotional connections." - Louis Fatta

"....each totemic ancestor while travelling through the country was thought to have scattered a trail of words and musical notes among the lines of footprints." - Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines