The Column of Memory 1975

Agustin Cardenas’s *Column of Memory* is made from bronze, using the lost wax casting method. This ancient technique involves creating a wax model, encasing it in a ceramic shell, melting out the wax, and then pouring molten bronze into the resulting void. Once cooled, the ceramic shell is broken away, revealing the bronze form, which is then finished by hand. The direct, tactile nature of modeling in wax is clearly evident here, in the biomorphic forms and rough textures. Cardenas was associated with the Surrealist movement, and the automatist approach to modelling aligns with that aesthetic. The use of bronze, a traditional sculptural material, lends the work a sense of timelessness and monumentality, but the surreal forms introduce an unsettling, dreamlike quality. Understanding how *Column of Memory* was made allows us to appreciate the artist's skillful manipulation of materials and the way in which traditional craft techniques can be used to create highly expressive and individual artworks.