Repetitive Reference

With a bronze cast held in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Thaddeus Mosley’s Repetitive Reference (2015) is a triumph of weight and space. The work pays homage to Chiwara, the antelope spirit who brought agriculture to humans and is honoured by the Bambara people in Mali. These objects and their associated rituals often connect human fertility with that of the land. Describing his interpretation, Mosley said, ‘you’ll see this is a contemporary, or at least my version of this idea. It should have a feeling of levitation, a floating quality’ (‘Repetitive Reference, 2020’, The Whitney Museum of American Art, 8 June 2023, online). Indeed, each element of Repetitive Reference seems to defy the bounds of gravity. Carved from walnut wood, the work allows the patterns and textures of the bark to express themselves fully.

Mosley, who passed away this year, briefly worked as a reporter before taking up wood carving after he saw a series of decorative teak birds in a department store display. Inspired by Constantin Brâncuși, Isamu Noguchi and African sculpture, Mosley primarily used cherry and walnut salvaged from forests in Pennsylvania where he lived. Working with only a chisel and gauge, he carved directly into the wood, transforming logs and trunks into biomorphic sculptures. ‘Over time I discovered the natural beauty of hardwoods,’ he explained. ‘So rather than hiding the structure of the wood and the interesting forms it takes, I try to highlight it’ (in conversation with H-U. Obrist, Thaddeus Mosley, exh. cat., Karma, New York, 2020, reproduced online). Works such as Repetitive Reference do not obscure their materials. Instead, Mosley brings out the wood’s natural beauty in its final form.