LONDON.- Daniel Silver transforms Camden Arts Centre’s Gallery 3 with a new and highly-charged installation entitled Heads, 13 July – 16 September 2007. Dozens of carved heads made in Zimbabwe following a lengthy collaboration with local craftsmen create a moving landscape. Silver is a traditionalist who revives his subjects with a new take on the world’s current affairs.

The starting point for his ‘portraits’, were photographs of inmates condemned to Death Row in the USA. The figurative elements are distorted to convey whole characters and a strong collective presence. Silver revisits the use of the portrait bust which were made chiefly of prominent, mostly heroic, figures in the 18th- and 19th-centuries.

“I am not interested in the body. I am interested in the head. A head can become more of an object than a body, because you can handle it like a football.” Daniel Silver

The lustrous, highly polished heads are made from black springstone and bottle-green soapstone. Silver is a sculptor with a playful and experimental approach to using different materials. Past works incorporated glass, resin, wood, stone and plastics.

Just as artists such as Elizabeth Frink and Jacob Epstein repeatedly turned to this form in their work, many artists working today are showing a renewed interest in the portrait bust.

Heads was commissioned by Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland and supported by Arts Council England: North East. Heads resulted from a residency at the University of Sunderland supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.