Richard Herzog
Home: Sarasota, Florida
Sculpture name: “Symbiosis”
What is it? A cluster of metal stalks with yellow translucent leaves fanning out from the top.
What was the idea behind “Symbiosis”?
“We’ve become so more integrated with our computers and silicon that we’re not really feeling that there’s a separation between them. It’s more natural now how we react to all of these manufactured items along with nature. So there was this synthetic yellow material. I used to live in Florida and Oklahoma, and I kept thinking how these places could use some shade. That got me thinking about a kind of umbrella design, but with bright colors that feels like a big leaf of some sort.”
What’s your approach to your work?
“With this piece, I was drawn to certain materials such as the yellow vinyl. It’s so synthetic and so unnatural, but there’s a quality that’s so vivid and like so many things you find in nature. A lot of times, my pieces are variants on plants and flowers and things in nature. I try to make something that’s like a weird synthetic version of them.’
What does art mean to you?
“As a kid, I loved taking things apart. I was always doing something with my hands. So as a necessity of taking everything apart but wanting to use these things again, I had to learn how to build things. It grew from that. With sculpture, it’s the physicality of it, the combination of expression and a degree of engineering?”
