The Inner Man

The Inner Man is a figure you can see through.

It is life-size, woven from steel rod, and held in a stance that is both grounded and unfinished: one foot planted, the other lifted, arms open. There is no face. The head is a coil of rod rising off the neck. Two copper rings stand behind the body.

I did not want a statue that occupies space the way a monument occupies a plinth. I wanted a body that is also a drawing in air. The rod is the line. The gaps are part of the sculpture. In the right light the piece reads as a lantern. In harder light it reads as armature - the thing under the skin.

People bring their own references to it. Some see Vitruvian proportion. Some see a crucifix. Some see a man walking out of something. I am not interested in locking that down. The work is named for what you cannot photograph in a person and still know is there.

The studio piece stands seven feet and weighs about 300 pounds. It is unique, and it is available.

If you want to live with it, or site it, write with the room or the plot in mind. I would rather place it once, correctly, than move it twice.

- Adam Stempka