Notes

This humorous bright orange two-sided vertical sculpture has a distinctly robotic feel. An unusual piece produced in 1990, it is surprisingly constructed of polystyrene industrial components, sprayed with a glossy duco which consolidates the piece into a coherent whole.

Edoardo Villa's experimentation with this challenging new material that was simultaneously bulky and light enabled him to produce works which would have a volumetric dimension quite different to the planar qualities of steel, his preferred medium. This piece was exhibited in 1991 at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg amidst a body of similarly brightly coloured ducoed sculptures, each dramatically displayed in its own gleaming Perspex box. This solo exhibition startled his viewing public by his playful and innovative use of polystyrene, an essentially 'throwaway' medium. These works challenged the viewer's preconceptions of his use of more weighty materials and subject matter. This compact vertical orange robotic figure configured of industrial packaging has a rectangular robotic face, large eyes, and complexly articulated body with humorous squared toed feet. It is probably broadly located within public consciousness by the popular precedent of the delightful diminutive 'automaton' R2 D2, from Star Wars. Edoardo Villa in 1990 had visited the Venice Biennale and seemingly was prompted to explore the use of unconventional materials. Over successive years visiting the Biennale, Villa had spent time with his lifelong friends Vittorino and Paulina Meneghelli in their historic family Pallazo in Mestre on the coastline near Venice. Meneghelli In Johannesburg was the owner of an influential African art gallery, Totem Meneghelli in Jeppe Street, that specialised in both traditional African art and artefacts as well as showing the work of significant contemporary artists such as Cecil Skotnes, Pino Cattaneo and Aileen Lipkin. Meneghelli, an ardent admirer and collector of Villa's work, had an influential effect on the artists whose studios he frequented, at times shifting their direction by his forceful and innovative views. Sentinel - Automaton was in the Meneghelli collection and I surmise that he had a hand in the genesis of this challenging body of Villa's work.