Liviu Bora and wood carving
Alexandra Furna
http://www.romanialibera.ro
http://www.casamea.ro/inspiratie/arta/artisti/liviu-bora-si-sculptura
There is no man who has not been touched by the dramatic start of the chess game between Antonius Blok and Death in "The Seventh Seal" of the famous Ingmar Bergman. The art passionate, however, will see more than just the ultimate significance of the two players gesture and the atmosphere of a bleak poetry. It is about the splendid chess pieces handled by the characters, pieces that are so expressive that they seem alive. Was the sculptor Liviu Bora inspired by the abyssal confrontation between Antonius and the inexpressible when he created his stunning set chess?
All that can be said is that the artist has made some pieces that go far beyond conventional order and usual expressiveness of the conventional queens and shabby kings. Tellingly entitled "Dracula’s Warriors" the pieces gets a life and an identity of their own, becoming real characters. Thus, each game becomes a land confrontation between two rival individuals and players can deceive, even for an hour, they are engaged in a action that can change the course of ordinary life. In this respect, Bora Liviu's sculptures get involved you in a complex set of spells, revealing the magical valences of everyday objects.
The chess set is just one aspect of creation sculptor whose favorite material is wood (of walnut, linden, yew, patinated, polished, stained, passed through skilful hands of the artist-craftsmen). Author of some fascinating series of masks as well as various statues, but also of some furniture, the artist is distinguished by cultivating an original aesthetics. Using a complex plastic idiom, which is rooted in primitive imagery, in the Gothic one and in the Baroque one, Liviu Bora gives birth of creations that have the power to cast spells. The sculptor approach topics with ancient touch such as "Apollo and Daphne", various nudes but also theatrical characters like clowns. Addition, he collaborates passionately with numerous theaters in the country, making puppets or masks for different shows.
Liviu Bora is a unusual artist, follower of the most material and "sensual" of fine arts. The sculptor proves to be a skillful artisan of wood, treating it gently and took from it the spirit of the forms that manages to carve. The viewer of Bora Liviu’s artworks can’t remain indifferent to their enormous expressive power. Whether masks, chess pieces or themed sculptures, the creations of the artist are testimonies of the ability of the substance to animate through mediation of human touch. The shapes dress in various masks which the creator’s talent can lay on them to give them a meaning that can be grasped by the human eye. Liviu Bora is an inventor of chimeras, or truths, made tangible through the artist's desire to shape representations of the world he has inside.
|