Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound 1914

This is Henri Gaudier-Brzeska's 'Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound', and it's made of stone. Looking at it, I imagine Gaudier-Brzeska really going at it, chipping away, each cut a decision, a paring back to reveal something essential about Pound. It’s like a conversation, the artist and the stone, each giving way, pushing back, arriving at this form together. The material aspects of sculpture like this are so important. The hard edges give it a sense of permanence, and the stone suggests monumentality and endurance. There is a dialogue happening in the piece between different ways of seeing and experiencing the world. It's something that relates to the artist’s wider practice, as well as the work of other sculptors. Artists are always in conversation, aren't they? The way we interpret forms, the exchange of ideas, it’s all part of this ongoing story. And that’s what makes art so alive, so endlessly open to interpretation.