Jan Trubač↓

About the work

Float, Growth, and Here

At first I was at a loss as to what to do, what topic area I should choose. Then one November morning, just before dawn, my daughter was born. I became a parent. The rodeo began, a big crazy adventure, and the topic of parenting was suddenly omnipresent.

I resisted it at first, thinking it would be better not to involve my family in my diploma work. I knew I certainly did not want to create a sculpture of realistic figures. Over time, the idea of materializing the subject as a story, abstractly, so that the form would not overshadow the content, grew in me.

This story begins with the first sculpture, which I called Float Together. It is composed of three parts. The lower part represents a boat, a common space, perhaps the cradle of life. The other two parts are abstracted figures of a man and a woman, parents, standing together on this boat, sailing through life. If one of them rocks, the other rocks too. They form a balance. There is a space between them that they protect together. It is a space for new life. I made this sculpture out of wood and chose a monumental scale so that I could encompass the height of the figures with my own body.

The story continues with the second sculpture, the one I named Letting Grow. It materializes motherhood. I made a simplistic representation of a pregnant woman, inspired by the shape of a bulb that carries a new growing life. Also important to me is the aspect of the hidden mystery that lies within. As a material I used white marble, a symbol of purity.

The story concludes with the sculpture Here She Is. Unlike the previous two sculptures, which were created based on sketches of my ideas, the shape of this sculpture was inspired by a stone. It was lying in the school garden in autumn and resembled a leaf. I decided to respect the mass, follow the vision and clean it up into the shape of that leaf, a symbol of growth and womb. On top of it I placed a bean made of white marble as a representation of our newborn daughter.