{"product_id":"two-hippo-heads-white-marble-statue-100cm","title":"Two Hippo Heads White Marble Statue - 100cm","description":"\u003ch3\u003eDescription\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwo hippopotamus heads break the surface together, and nothing else of either is shown. The nearer head sits down close and turns toward you, its broad muzzle filling the front with the nostrils cut as deep open rings and a scatter of fine bristle pits punched across it; the farther head is raised behind with small pricked ears and eyes in heavy folded lids. The two overlap and interlock with no seam, so they are one carving and both are included. There is no base. White marble, faintly warm, matte and finely granular - a stipple that reads grey at distance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eLeft Granular on Purpose\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eNothing on this piece is polished, and that is a decision rather than a saving. The whole surface is worked to an even fine granularity - close, matte, faintly gritty to the eye - which is much harder to achieve consistently than a gloss, because a gloss forgives an uneven underlying surface and a matte finish shows every one of them. It has to be even across the whole piece or the eye reads the variation as dirt, and it cannot be corrected locally: go back over a patch and that patch becomes smoother than its neighbours, which shows immediately. So it is done in one continuous campaign, at one grade, with the hand kept to the same rhythm from the first pass to the last. The bristle pits are punched afterwards.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe whole conceit of this piece is that the rest of the animals are underwater, so it wants a setting that supplies the water - or at least implies it. In a shallow pool, at the margin of a pond, set into gravel so the heads seem to rise out of it, in a bed of low planting, on a lawn where mown grass reads as a surface. At 100cm across, these lie low and are met by looking down into them. It fails on a plinth: raise it up and it stops being two hippos in water and becomes two severed heads on a pedestal. At 584kg it is among the lighter pieces here and needs no more than a prepared pad beneath it, which makes that placement easy to get right.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTwo Heads at a Waterline\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwelve to fourteen weeks. Leaving the surface granular and unpolished throughout is a decision, not an economy. The block is squared and both heads set out on it together, since they interlock and neither can be moved once roughed. The nearer muzzle is brought down first because it governs the front of the piece, then the farther head behind it. The nostril rings are bored and opened, the folded eyelids cut late. The whole surface is then worked to its even granularity in one campaign, and the bristle pits punched at the end. Both heads are one piece of stone, with nothing pinned, dowelled or filled. Only 584kg for two heads, which four people and a gantry bed onto a prepared pad. Our main studios are in the UK (Birmingham) and Dubai, with additional global workshops.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeads without bodies are unusual in \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/animal-sculptures\"\u003eanimal sculptures\u003c\/a\u003e, and modern form 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\u003e100cm\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":53837359055195,"sku":"MST-ANI-154","price":9942.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0869\/3383\/2027\/files\/MST-ANI-154_1.jpg?v=1787182808","url":"https:\/\/giant-sculptures.com\/products\/two-hippo-heads-white-marble-statue-100cm","provider":"Giant Sculptures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}