Pen

'Pen' was commissioned for the exhibition 'S'imbriquer - Autour de la Brique' at the Maladrerie St Lazare, Beauvais, France, June - September 2011. The external faces of the sculpture are built from many thousands of bricks. These are stacked in the landscape, much as they might be found in basic brick factories in Asia or Africa. The sculpture can be entered. Inside, I constructed a closed ring in miniature bricks. Pen stands in a field also occupied by sheep - the situation for the sculpture and the juxtaposition of different scales suggested to me the episode from the Odyssey when Odysseus is held captive by Polyphemus, the Cyclops. Odysseus eventually escapes by plunging a heated stake into the giant's sole eye. Inside Pen, traces of fleece and sheep shit impregnate the space with the hot smell of sheep.