TONY COLANGELO
CONTEMPORARY WALL RELIEF
The latest works, the aluminium bas relief, have been of particular interest in the today's modern fitout including stainless steel and alloy highlights. Colangelo's finish is extremely high, evoking a topographical effect, with a highly light responsive monochromatic surface. The work is ideally placed in low light areas, as it absorbs and reflects the available light revealing a metallic incandescence, a kind of understated sensuality. His work comes in various sizes that can be combined to form diptyches, triptychs and series of panels
The Creative Process
A number of processes go into the creation of Tony's highly fabricated sculptures. Various objects are screwed into and/or attached to the tyres of a tractor. Tony then drives the tractor over the aluminium. The result is a substrate with rippling, dimpled effects, negative and positive. This may seems "simple" but at this point the emerging sculpture goes through a number of highly fabricated processes:
* The corners are welded and ground sometimes up to 3 to 4 times – aluminium welding being a highly skilled function. The bas-relief is now a smooth continuous surface which can then be fitted seamlessly onto the specially constructed timber support.
* The sculpture is then polished many times enabling light to play off against the surface shapes.
* The work is finished off with a specially formulated clear lacquer. This not only gives the sculpture a lustrous surface but prevents oxidization.
* Further polishing results in a circular lustre, enhancing the surface which has now taken on a sense of swirling movement.
