Birth 2006

Lubo Kristek's sculpture, 'Birth', is made from painted materials, probably plaster or clay, and installed in an outdoor scene. The tree is painted in an unnatural blue, suggesting that we're looking at an artificial, or idealized, version of nature. The surface looks worked, you can see the strokes, the way it's been built up, not polished or pristine. It’s like Kristek is thinking about the process of making itself, how things come into being, how artifice is born from the natural world. The red spheres which look like apples, hanging from the end of some branches, are so bright that they really grab you. Looking at the sculpture as a whole, it's interesting to think about how it transforms the natural landscape around it. Kristek has created something that invites us to consider the intersection of art and life, and the many ways in which birth might be understood. This play with form and the absurd reminds me of Dadaist artists like Jean Arp. It's all part of art's ongoing conversation.