Cronus

‘Cronus’ is the latest creation in a series of Iron Clocks produced by Mark Avis. Standing at over seven feet, ‘Cronus’ is Mark’s most ambitious sculpture to date.

As Mark himself admits ‘this has been my most challenging creation yet – the contrast between the fractured sides of the clock and the soft, melting effect, was a completely new idea that I wanted to convey’.

To achieve this dramatic sense of fluidity and fragmentation, Mark spent hours layering and re-shaping the material, to create the distinctive soft and brittle effects. His aim was to portray the illusion of movement, encompassing the pull of gravity and the pressure of time simultaneously.

On close inspection, you can see the form of a woman in motion, whose body is beginning to melt as the force of time descends from above. Diametrically opposed to this are fissures on the other side of the clock, emphasising the disintegrating nature of time and the transient nature of life.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this particular piece is what Mark refers to as the ‘negative volume in the trunk of the sculpture’. This void reinforces the texture and depth of the main body of the sculpture, and yet paradoxically, it emphasises the fragility that can embody a work of art made of steel.