Forged Sculpture Mea Culpa III – Incarnation of the Inner Self into Matter

Author: Ladislav Gulyás ⏱️ 2,5 - 3 minúty

Technical Specifications:

Material: Metal / Iron

Dimensions: Height 660 mm

Weight: [Not specified]

Finish: Patinated iron

"I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of the night. Why is it my confidant? Because it remains silent." – Søren Kierkegaard

"You have a dark soul," a middle-aged woman told me a few years ago upon seeing my work.

"Perhaps darker than you think," I thought to myself, making no attempt to prove her wrong. Even then, I took it as a compliment rather than an insult. Nothing has changed today. In a modern world saturated with artificial happiness and shallow compliments, I am perhaps too dark. But is that truly the case?

A Simple Figure Inspired by Giacometti

The forged sculpture Mea Culpa III is an unpretentious piece. I did not attempt to experiment. The work does not pretend to be anything more than what it genuinely is—the incarnation of my inner self into matter.

Art has the right to be straightforward. Simple, joyful, or melancholic. It has the right to exist "just because." One does not always need to hunt for hidden meanings in everything. I have no desire to offer the viewer convoluted formulas or force the question: "What was the artist trying to say?" That is simply not my world.

Beneath the Surface

For me, sculpting means diving into the lake of my own soul. It is finding an unhealed, bleeding wound and attempting to cure it. The bandage is always the creative process itself, during which I can completely turn off the world. Suddenly, I lose all sense of time and space. There is only the artwork. Just like the Beats.

The final sculpture is always a spontaneous incarnation of my inner self, created in the hope that I might reveal something that perhaps no longer belongs in this superficial world.

In a Whirlpool of Questions, on the Path

How many times in our lives do we truly look inward and gaze honestly into the metaphorical well of our soul? Are we even capable of it? And when we finally manage to look, what do we see at the bottom?

The sins of the past haunt us. Whether we like it or not, they follow us like our own shadow. They are a part of who we are, yet we constantly try to forget them. We fear them. We consciously lock them away in a drawer hidden in the most private, secluded chamber of our inner self. On our way back to reality, we throw away the key, hoping we will never remember where we left it.

For me, a forged sculpture is not primarily about displaying anatomical perfection or demonstrating technical mastery to the world. In my work, art always takes precedence over the craft of blacksmithing itself.

My Dark Soul

I do not know. Perhaps I really do have a dark soul. Perhaps I ponder more than is necessary, and more than is customary in our "perfect" world.

All I know is that I will always point to the darker sides. We live in a strange era. We consume ourselves with petty things—politics, small talk, celebrities. We comment, like, and share the lives of others, while our own inner selves remain cloaked from us behind a veil of "I don't want to know." Perhaps it is our naivety. Perhaps intent. Perhaps both.

But how often can we bring ourselves to look into the metaphorical well of our soul? Are we even capable of it? What would we find down there?

Photo: Ladislav Gulyás Metal Studio