Skip to main content

The Beautifully Grotesque Wax Sculptures of Sigrid Sarda


There are two types of reactions to seeing Sigrid Sarda's work: turning away or moving in closer. Sigrid, a talented sculptor based in New York, creates unbelievably detailed and delicate-looking human figures made of wax. She's been carving beautifully grotesque pieces for many years now, but for over 30 years she was a painter. Due to the death of her father and the psychological aftermath she experienced, she quit painting.

Sigrid's sculptures are life-size wax pieces built on hand wrought armatures, sometimes real human bones upon which she hand-models cast faces and other body parts. Be sure to check out her blog or follow her on Instagram for information on exhibitions and more of her fabulous work.

Artist Statement:
"Sigrid Sarda constructs life-size human figures made of wax incorporating human remains in the tradition of the doll as a magical object. The figures become talismans, reliquaries housing human bones. Each tableaux, in tradition of the diorama, is peppered with the grotesque, comic and at times empathetic life-size characters along with backdrops of popular cultural and biblical icons, engaging in what our culture deems acceptable by today's standards. Borrowing from fables, allegories and fairytales Sarda creates nightmarish vignettes of her own personal malaise blurring the lines of the assumption of the hero/villain and the universal concepts of archetypical imagery. With her characteristic dark humor, Sarda creates a world of flipped morality and a decaying system of values run amok."



Comments

  1. hi...I found you on the internet!...it was so nice talking to you today...I know as much about wax works as you do about investing.....I was drawing at the Art Students League for a few years and then suddenly stopped a year ago...with me fatigue was a factor, fatigue and distractions.. ...anyway, I enjoyed talking to you, grown up or not...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Look at Karl Arnaiz's "Duality"

It 's me,  not the artist. Karl Arnaiz's "Duality" (currently on view at Eskinita Art Gallery ) is an invitation to ponder the complexities of life and appreciate the balance that exists even in differences. This 36 x 27-inch piece in charcoal and watercolor isn't just art that looks pretty on a wall. It's art that makes you stop, think, and maybe even re-evaluate how you see the world. Karl Arnaiz paints a meditation on death and its contrasting yet inevitable connection with life. In Duality, he explores the darker corners of the human experience. There is a certain sense of psychological imprisonment that permeates his work, as he paints a woman confined in a room with a disconnected skull floating against the wall. It shows how powerless humans are in the face of mortality and how the imminent passage of time from the woman’s face to the skull is simply nothing but a straight line, a blank, negative space on the wall, showing how nothing can obstruct death...

Press Play Again

You know that feeling when you stumble upon an old movie you haven't seen in years? It's like finding a dusty photo album and flipping through the pages, only instead of bad hairstyles, you're greeted with hideous special effects and awful dialogue. Also, the dramatic tension I remembered as nail-biting was now… well, a little slow-paced. But the truly entertaining part of rewatching a movie is that you notice things you never did before. For example, in Midnight Cowboy , I didn't know that the guy who gave Joe Buck (Jon Voight) a blow job was played by Bob Balaban, who later became known for his role as Russell Dalrymple, the fictional president of NBC in Seinfeld . Released in 1969, Midnight Cowboy is a raw, sometimes uncomfortable, often heartbreaking, but ultimately deeply human. And seriously, the chemistry between Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and Buck is pure gold. Rewatching a movie is like visiting an old friend. You know their idiosyncrasies, their stories, bu...

These ladies brought the chill.

The Philippines just bagged the gold medal at the recent International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's Asia Cup in UAE. Yes, you read that right. Ice hockey. Champions. But let me tell you, what we lacked in natural frozen water, we more than made up for in heart, hustle, and teamwork. The ladies had a perfect tournament in Al Ain with victories against Kyrgyzstan (15-0), UAE (6-1), Malaysia (8-1) and India (4-1) before beating Iran  (4-2) for the gold. They proved that you don't need snow to conquer the ice. You just need talent, determination, and maybe a little bit of that Pinoy magic that allows us to thrive in the most unexpected situations. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find the nearest halo-halo vendor to celebrate.