Christopher Trotter
Sparky II 2003
Chris Trotter assembles sculptures from materials found in the 'graveyards' of the industrial age, where the grand aeronautical or agricultural machines which once represented the future rust into oblivion. Trotter carefully selects components, often those marked by age and wear, and recycles them into animals, fossils or alien creatures. His intimate understanding of structure and movement, combined with a naturalist's eye, imbues his works with energy and the essence of the subject.
Sparky II, from Trotter's 'biomechanic' series, evokes the comic nobility of the Daschund. The work also portrays a sense of playfulness in the cartoonish quality of the dog's expression and its invitation to the viewer to interact with him, to throw 'the bone' - which in this case is a spanner that may have been used to create him.
Each of Trotter's sculptures contains mechanical parts from different industries and discovering and identifying these, such as the spark plug which gave Sparky II his name, provides a level of humorous interaction with the work.
