Page 31 - Landmarks and Lifeforms

Danny Osborne
Danny is probably the first person to use molten lava flowing from a volcanic vent to create sculpture, which he feels is a deeply symbolic artistic gesture. The whole surface of the earth was covered with lava four billion years ago. It slowly cooled over many millions of years and metamorphosed into all the minerals, rocks, water and lifeforms, including us. He says, “when I form a sculpture from molten lava, it takes a mighty great leap in time from the creation of the earth to the brutality of the conquistadors or the nurturing of a baby’s bottle of milk.”
Danny has also made work which explores how the Arctic region is represented, historicised, and mapped now and in the past. This locative concept is used again when he spent six days drawing the coastline while on a local crab boat travelling between the Bull Rock right across to the Mizen in Cork. The resulting engraved drawings on the huge bones of a Fin whale represent the land marks that this whale would have referenced while navigating along this coast before eventually being stranded.
www.dannyosborne.com
Photo: Danny Osborne and Fin’s Journey Whale Ribs, engraved and filled with red ochre and whale oil (detail)
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