In 2017, Calken Gallery’s resident sculptor, Michael James Talbot, began working the amazing aerial artist, Danilo De Campos Pacheco, at No Fit State Circus during their tour of ‘BIANCO’ . The result of this collaboration is the sculpture, Bianco, which is a portrait of Danilo, and the first piece in Michael’s Circus Sculpture Collection.
Michael has always been fascinated with classical drapery as well as anatomical form, shape and performance. Studying the aerial art of Danilo, combined these two great fascinations for him. Michael explains, “I used to carefully study the play of different materials and meticulously recreate every aspect of the weight, tension and hang of the material in my sculpture, , trying to balance realism with the aesthetic of the piece.”
The first two pieces in the Circus sculpture collection, Bianco and Aerial, explore the poetic beauty of the aerial artist using silks.
The shapes created are in many ways balletic, but with the added tension and intensity of danger- a nerve stretching dance of grace and gravity, mesmerising for the audience and intoxicating for the creation of sculpture.
“Working with the aerial artist, Danillo, I was uniquely able to view the anatomical movements, shifts and tensions of the performance, not only from below with the audience but at close eye level and above, which gave me an insight into the discipline and courage required by the performers.” explained Michael James Talbot.
“Their bodies were as a machine, uncompromisingly tuned to deliver one beautiful transition of shape form and balance after another, after another. For a sculptor this is pure source of inspiration and only the beginning of a deeper fascination.”