Featured Artist Daniel Baharier

Artist Daniel Baharier shares an incredible collection of bronze sculpture that celebrates the beauty and athleticism of the human body. See more by visiting his website.

 

 

Mediums I work in are the most plastic of the sculpture lexicon microcrystalline wax for maquettes. This is like working with room temperature bronze. The material is so alive, and needs no preplanned metal armature. It can be moulded in the hand and turned around and around, as you see your visualization from all possible angles and views. And as you broadcast the image from your mind to your hands to form the wax in 3D.

 

 

From here I go to natural clay or plaster. I am at home with both, and normally curse the fact I am working in one or the other. I’m always reminding myself that the other would have been easier to work in. But both are rich in possibilities and in creating textures of different hardness and softness, according to how you pack the material and if its wetter or drier, soft or hard burnished, or filed.

 

 

Inspiration comes from many places. A series of sculptures forms the basis of my work, drawing inspiration from mathematical theorems, symmetry, parallel lines, and even a Mobius strip. These components undergo a transformative journey influenced by the intricate details found in branches, plants, and cracks in the paving stones beneath our feet. Water, with its ever-changing shapes as it meanders, also plays a crucial role in shaping my artistic expression.

 

 

In the process, I merge these elements with my intended message. The evolution of my work has, at times, guided me in unexpected directions, leading me to experiment with wax derived from flat sheets. Additionally, I’ve explored painted images on ancient Greek vases, bringing them to life as three-dimensional “reliefs.” Another dimension of my creative process involves crafting molds, where I transition from a positive image to its negative counterpart.

 

 

From an outcrop to a depression, I have long been attracted to the moment of equilibrium between balance and falling. I strive to capture this moment to show movement within my sculptures. I sculpt and draw because I need and love to create, especially using all those things that mummy wouldn’t let you play with – like mud, knives and fire.

 

 

As I bend the steel rods to create the armatures, I am captured in some strange place, not of this time and place. As I continue to create, I feel like I am the only focus within an unfocused world. Working on a sculpture, I take a piece of clay from the bin which is exactly the shape needed to fit into the 50,000-piece jigsaw.

 

 

Being socially aware, my subject matter can be about things I feel deeply about from peace and the fate of peacemakers to the place of women within our society and the way they are treated. This ranges from “Me Too” towards the beginning of my career, to my latest works dealing with abuse and violence towards women. However, I don’t take away the aesthetic values of the human body. Where would we be without the appreciation of a woman’s body, long a favourite meme of the artist?

 

 

In addition to a particular message that inspired the piece, I wish to broadcast to observers this love and care through using the composition, movement and textures that I have achieved within each piece.

 

Daniel Baharier invites you to follow on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and to visit his Wikipedia page.

 

 

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