{"product_id":"faceted-gorilla-head-marble-bust-120cm","title":"Faceted Gorilla Head Marble Bust - 120cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA gorilla's head and shoulders are carved as a bust, cut into flat triangular planes. The brow ridge, the flattened nose with its flared nostrils, the deep-set eyes and the heavy jaw are each resolved into planes meeting at sharp arrises, and the crest of the skull rises to a faceted ridge. The shoulders below are cut as large plain planes and the whole sits on an integral faceted block with no separate plinth. White marble near neutral, grey veining branching across the faceted brow and shoulder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Faceted Skull With Real Eyes In It\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFaceting a head is harder than faceting a body because a face has to keep working as a face. Flat planes describe a shoulder perfectly well. Turn an eye socket, a nostril or a lip into polyhedra and the animal stops looking at you and becomes a diagram of a gorilla. So this piece runs two languages at once: the skull, jaw and shoulders are strictly planar, and the eyes and nostrils are modelled naturalistically within them. Where the two meet is decided on the block and not discovered at the socket: the eye recesses are set out as shallow dishes with STRAIGHT-SIDED outer edges, which gives the facets around them a straight edge to finish against instead of a curved one, so the join is settled in advance and never argued over at the socket.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCutting an animal off at the shoulders is a deliberate act and the eye knows it, which makes the height you set it at matter far more than it would for a complete figure. At 120cm the muzzle is at about chest height and meets you almost square on. At that height it holds together. Put it down at floor level and it starts to look like something that fell off a big statue. It sits on its own integral block, so it needs a plinth, a pier, a console, a broad sill or a low wall under it. Faceting shows the grey veining whole across each flat plane, which is the quiet reward of the piece, so give it raking light and a plain background - against foliage or patterned brick the facets become noise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA Bust Wants Lifting\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFourteen to sixteen weeks. Reconciling a faceted skull with naturalistic eyes and nostrils is decided on the block. The integral block is squared and the bust roughed above it deliberately over-square, since faceting works by slicing planes off a prism. The eye recesses are set out first with straight-sided outer edges so the surrounding facets have a straight boundary to die into. The large planes of skull, jaw and shoulder follow, each worked flat and checked corner to corner. The nostrils and eyes are modelled last, within a boundary that already exists. Bust and block are one stone; every facet is cut and none of it moulded. Only 1,008kg as one faceted block, which one gantry lift beds onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCarved heads sit apart within \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and planar work fills \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/geometric-sculptures\"\u003egeometric sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eSpecification\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable class=\"spec_table\"\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e120cm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand-Carved Natural Marble\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Giant Sculptures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53841766908251,"sku":"MST-ANI-170","price":14809.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-170_1.jpg?v=1787232284","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/faceted-gorilla-head-marble-bust-120cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}