Stephen Cox RA
"The small ‘Bowl’ sculptures have a special place in my work. Seen as ‘libation’ bowls they have a symbolism in the interface between the everyday object and the spiritual, between the secular and the ‘transcendent’. Having worked in India for nearly 30 years I became fascinated with the profound role of ‘sculpture’, that is, idols and utensils of stone, at the heart of life from the poorest to the richest in society. There was sense of a ‘living’ sculpture. How idols and incidental objects would be ‘enlivened’ through ritual and libation was an intense experience coming from the West. This ritual ‘interface’ is especially interesting as the intervention is transformational. The bowls consequently become ‘transitional objects’. My sculpture made in India would be frequently oiled and the bowls take their part as metaphor for the ‘transformational’ that occurs in art i.e. that mundane materials through a sequence of actions are transformed into a whole different area of understanding. In the same way my altars, made for Cathedrals and churches, have been subjected to the ritual of consecration are in consequence changed."
Working in Shropshire
2010 Royal Academician, Royal Academy of Arts, London
1964-1965 West of England College of Art, Bristol
1965-1966 Loughborough College of Art, Loughborough
1966-1968 Central School of Art & Design, London
Stephen Cox has work in the following public collections:
Arts Council Collection, London
British Council Collection, London
The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow
Tate Gallery, London
The British Museum, London
The Henry Moore Foundation, Hertfordshire
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool
Gori Fattoria di Celle Collection, Pistoia, Italy
Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan