This series returns to an earlier idea about the expansion of body-space that was first explored in FRUIT, BODY and EARTH (all 1991/93): moulds that were expanded by consistent amounts until they became simpler fruiting bodyforms. The process of adding skins to the work was first used in LAND, SEA AND AIR I (1977-79), where through the careful pigmentation of each subsequent layer of plaster, I attempted to find a point of tension between representation and generalisation. After its skin has been re-covered several times, any object becomes spherical or egg-shaped. The subsequent addition or removal of skins from objects began with the removal of the annual growth layer of trees in works like LAST TREE (1979) and was coupled with the repeated layering of lead skins to existing man-made objects, as in FRUITS OF THE EARTH (1978-79), where three 'toxic' objects - a machete, a bottle of wine and a loaded 45-calibre hand-gun - were successively covered in lead until they became fruit-like. 

The latest cubic EXPANSION WORKS are massive cast iron forms (3.5 tonnes) that apply the laws of what used to be called 'the Hubble constant' (the rate of expansion of the universe) to body-space, and treat the body as a collection of cells. Every cell is expanded so that it is eaten and eats into adjacent cells while the whole accumulation of cells progresses towards a final state of a single cube. I am trying to find expressive poses that bring about a tension between their origin as a body and their becoming an abstract solid. For me, these new works are both architectonic and emotional. They follow a rigorous logic, yet nevertheless retain a strong human charge.