India

Etruscan II, 1986

Black Indian granite with oil and lamps

150 x 480 x 30 cm

Private Collection, Italy

Annunciation, 1986-7

Annunciation, 1986-7

Black Indian Granite with Oil, 2 Elements

400 x 200 x 100 cm (158 x 79 x 39 1/2 inches)

Private Collection, Stockholm

Conjunction, 1987

Conjunction, 1987

Dolerite/basalt

186x60x60cm including base

‘Conjunction' is the coming together of male and female as in the genesis theme in the Ardhanarishvara form of Siva, the cosmic and the temporal.

Studies for Conjunction, 1987, graphite

Kani, 1988

Black Indian granite and cotton cloth of various colours with oil

60 x 500 x 46 cm (23 1/4 x 196 3/4 x 18 inch)

Private Collection

Ganapathi and Devi, 1988

Dolorite

A: 332 x 163 x 105 cm

B: 308 x 127 x 96 cm 

Broadgate Properties PLc, London

It’s 5,106 miles from London to the quarries of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, India. In 1988, this is where artist Stephen Cox sourced the stone for his monolithic, semi-abstract sculptures, Ganapathi And Devi, which now stand in Broadgate Plaza. Apart-yet-together, these complex works allude to sculptural torsos and ancient themes (Devi is the name of the female Hindu goddess while Ganapathi is the South Indian name for the popular elephant god, Ganesha) fusing the contemporary with the historical.

Organs of Action, 1988

Black Indian granite with oil

5 elements

Each 186 x 61 x 23 cm

Photographed at the Cass sculpture foundation

Private Collection, UK

Rishi, I, 1989

RISHI I , 1989  Basalt, ( variously: dolerite or black ‘granite’ or Charnockite).

175 x 90 x 45 cm including base

The Rishis are regarded as sages or seers who, after intense meditation, realized the supreme truth and eternal knowledge which they then translated into hymns. Stephen Cox’s sculpture entitled “Rishi I” represents a figure with the minimum intervention made on to the stone itself. The stone, basalt, was taken from a place where some of the oldest stones on the Earth’s surface can be found. It shows the scars and incisions of the quarry men who have used the most primary tools to release the block from its bed, where it has lain since long before the beginning of human recorded time. This act of releasing stones from a primordial era and bringing them into the light of today is central to Cox’s practice, as he strives to understand a universal language of sculpture.