CARLONE CONTEMPORARY: Rona Pondick

Magical human-animal hybrids have populated the artist’s sculptural world since the year 2000. The cavorting monkeys incorporating parts of the human body are simultaneously wild, erotic, aggressive, and whimsical; the human face—the artist herself—either suffering or ecstatic. An overriding impression of ambivalence exists, of attraction and repulsion, and of other often contradictory impulses and drives.

From Egyptian sphinxes and deities, Greek centaurs, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, to mermaids in fairy-tales, chimera have exerted a fascination since time immemorial. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is arguably the most famous example from modern times, and was a source of inspiration for the artist.

Monkeys was created over a period of several years using an elaborate process. Transitions between human and animal are no longer visible—Rona Pondick researched works of the Old Masters in her quest to achieve this flawless execution. With the utmost precision, the artist cast parts of her own body or head using 3D technology to reduce the size of the life casts. She merged these with hand-sculpted animal bodies to create her human-animal hybrids. The meticulous handling of the stainless steel surface is also significant, for duality is manifested in materiality. The parts of the human body are lifelike whereas the animals are smooth and flowing. The monkeys’ movements and the complex dynamics of their interactions within the tangle of creatures exert a pull on viewers. Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Baroque sculptures were an important influence in this regard. As we see in Bernini’s art, everything in Pondrick’s work seems to dissolve into flowing movement and only by walking around the sculpture can it be grasped in its entirety.