ENAMEL STEEL SCULPTURES
Heavy with this echo of history the geometric shapes within Traxler’s steel structures look to have been lifted from the blueprint of a technical drawing documenting a secret architectural design. Lightly interlocking and carefully constructed,these fragmented compositions are slotted together, each piece interacting with its neighbour. The cut edges of the steel function as lines in space interplaying with the mark making on the surface. The shattered composition of shape and form create interference and interruption misleading the eye and causing a sense of unease within the light reflective inky black base enamel and shards of applied colour. This cryptographic drawing referencing dazzle camouflage and radar, the hidden messages of warfare.
These eight vitreous enamel and steel constructions are titled The Beauty Chorus, borrowed from the unofficial name given to the bank of contrasting coloured secret telephones linking Churchill’s underground headquarters at Whitehall to control rooms around the nation intercepting information and scrambling messages. It also honours the female pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) also known informally as the Beauty Chorus during WWII.
