Public Art

The One Brother and the Dark Cloud, Corner of Eastwood and Park Street, Pretoria (2010)

Medium: Cast bronze and stainless steel | Photos by Elizabeth Olivier-Kahlua

The scale of the work is influenced by the artist's great interest in and appreciation for public art. The representation of the 'One Brother' stands in contrast to the idealised figures such as the hero on his horse, the objectified figure or a surface/place where the male gaze has fallen upon. This is not a political sculpture and its motivation is not that of a political monument. The represented African youth is one of three brothers that the artist knows and embodies a larger unheralded collective, of here and now.
The withered surface of the figure reveals cracks and an inner framework in areas. Angus has started modeling sculptures past completion, waiting for it to deteriorate before he captures (moulds) it. So, instead of moulding at the peak of the bell curve, he waits for the material to corrode and crumble.

The ruining material in itself tells the whole story. Concepts implicit to the meaning of the work are order and chaos, continuity and discontinuity, life and death and so on.
Contrasting the dark textured bronze figure, a reflective smooth stainless-steel shape, looms metaphorically above the body like a led balloon.

The 'dark cloud' reminds of various things, amongst others a thought/speech-bubble. This personal symbol of the artist actually developed with the Centenary sculptures at the University of Pretoria (2009). The spherical shapes explained interrelated and inter-dependant schools of thought that are generated at the institution. The 'dark cloud' has the same cumulative nature; the interlocking spherical shapes symbolize abstract ideas such as disciplines of thought and influences like science religion – so its actually not a dark cloud after all, but casts a dark shadow on the figure, as do we on our environment.