Alison Wilding b.1948
Immersion, 1988
brass
39¼ by 19 by 22 inches
Archive no.AW 92

Provenance
The Edward R. Broida Trust, USA

Exhibited
London, Karsten Schubert Gallery, Alison Wilding: Sculptures 1987/8, 10 December 1988 - 28 January 1989, illus b/w p27

Liverpool, Tate Gallery, Alison Wilding, Immersion: Sculpture from Ten Years , 22 May - 4 August 1991, p14, illus b/w, cat no.13, illus colour

Literature
Susan Quinnell, Alison Wilding: The Embrace of Sculpture, Crescent Moon Publishing, 2008, p42, p51-2, p64-5, illus colour as cover image and b/w p94

Some of Alison Wilding's cone or column-like sculptures refer directly to religion in their titles: Vestal for instance. Works such as Immersion, Receiver, Nest, Her Furnace, Vestal, Tidal, Bare, Fugue and Dismantle all feature cylindrical forms, most of them floor-standing. Some of these forms recall monumental figures, others suggest notions of cradling and protection. Some of the slender standing sculptures have openings at the top, inviting the viewer to peer down into their interiors - Vestal, Immersion, Her Furnace. The act of looking down into the sculpture becomes an important part of consuming the work. The identification with the interior institutes a new sense of self-awareness, a new sense of the body.

One of the most common of Wilding's motifs is one form nestling inside another. Sometimes two forms fit snugly together, as in Nest, while others such as Immersion and Temper, have more of a gap between the upper narrow form and the lower wider form. Immersion unites two of Wilding's favourite forms, the gently tapering upright cylinder and the shallow cone. The notion of 'immersion' is suggested here in two ways: firstly the upper form is 'immersed' in the lower form, just as a limb is lowered into water. But, secondly, the notions of inner and outer are emphasised by Wilding's treatment of the surface of this all-brass sculpture. The inner surfaces gleam, as brass gleams around hearths in pre-industrial age houses or in ye-olde pubs. The exterior surface of the brass, the skin of the sculpture, is not polished, but darkened.

Extract from Susan Quinnell, Alison Wilding: The Embrace of Sculpture, 2008, p51-2