Robert Taplin

In the installation the sculptor not only represents the physical characteristics of the planets, but also the attributes of the mythological figures associated with them. Cast in plaster and translucent rice paper and illuminated from within by low-wattage bulbs, the figures are doubled in identical casts and placed in symmetrical configurations rolling and spinning like the planets with their dark and light sides. Uranus is conceived as the grandfather, Saturn, the father and Zeus, Pluto, and Neptune as sons. The startlingly provocative installation eerily explores the figures’ tumultuous mythological family relationships.