Kate Blacker

1986

Sculpture, 2 x (53 x 255 cm).
Materials: wood, aluminium

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK5217_M30).

The sculpture Portable Glory consists of two almost identical upright columns in corrugated aluminium. With a height of 255 cm, they tower over the viewer, but their material gives them a hollow, ephemeral stage-like look. They stand on the floor without a plinth and it’s as if you could just walk away with them. The column motif is reminiscent of elements of classical architecture, while the material refers more to contemporary architecture. These architectural references are limited to the form and material, however: these columns do not support anything, and have no functional architectural value. In Kate Blacker’s hands architecture becomes sculpture.

The laurel wreaths that adorn the columns also refer to classical antiquity. They summon up associations with victory, conquest and glory. At the same time they give the columns a more human touch. They were created by cutting and curling triangular sections of metal from the columns. They thus take on the appearance of sharp crowns of thorns that evoke pain, mockery and death. The position of the wreaths on the columns is determined by the classical principle of reverse symmetry. If you interpret the columns as human figures, one wreath is situated at the height of the loins (the danger of lust and desire, for example the nymph Daphne, who changed into a laurel bush to protect her from Apollo’s lust) and the other at the position of the heart (for example the heart with the crown of thorns in paintings of Christ).

Is the title intended to point out that you always carry your glory, or victory, with you and everywhere and that it makes you immortal? Or is the artist referring to the expression ‘go/send to glory’: go to/send someone to the other world?