Timekeeper
2017
Granite
1930mm X 440mm X 150mm
$22,500
Johnny Turner is a self taught artist who sculpts in granite and hard metamorphic rock.
Timekeeper is a reference to the passing of time, both universal and personal. Its form is a combination of the hand of 'nature' and the hand of man. In Japanese sculpture, artists call the contrasts between rough natural stone and highly polished parts 'Warehada' and 'Nomgiri', breaking the stone and then reviving it back to life by caressing and polishing.
Exposed natural grain (its material granite named after the Latin term for grain - 'granum') is evidence of it being one of the oldest stones in the USA and indeed the world - 1.7 billion year old Rancho Cucamonga Californian granite from the Pre-Cambrian (before fossils) period. Daily quotidian social life can be measured by the shadow on the ground that Timekeeper casts.
This seminal new sculpture is one of his most ambitious works to date, weighing well over 120 kilograms and standing approx two metres in height. The artist has created a fine balance between the highly polished mirror like finish and the rough hewn speckled surface of the dark grey granite. The attention to detail is more intricate than previous works in his ouevre. The sculptural form features stepped, drilled and curved detailing, which is all executed precisely. Turner is very passionate about the ritual of carving, coming back to a work time after time, seeking that 'wow' factor that engages and surprises him.
Timekeeper stands somewhere visually between a waka bow and a streamlined rudder form, aerodynamic and fluid. The thick piece of granite is in fact recycled from a large American made printing machine, a heavy slab which would have once anchored the heavy machinery steady. An existing anchor bolt hole has been replicated twice more below, counter sunk and piercing through the sculpture.
Turner continues to reference elegant classical forms and adds a modernist twist, tapping into the psyche of Noguchi, Brancusi and Japanese aesthetics.
His works are in numerous prestigious private art collections throughout the world, including Australia, U.S.A and Europe.
Other Works
