Tipped at an angle, a silver dish oozes liquid glass. True Love BB62 is one of several sculptures from Michael Petry’s Bare Back (BB) Lovers series. The poured molten glass that seeps out of vessels refers to bodily fluids, a process that enables Petry to explore the themes of love and sexual desire without depicting the human body.
Through his combination of materials and components, Petry encourages us to consider the relationship between objects, the contexts in which they are usually seen and the social aspirations that they symbolise. The silver-plated dish here was found in a second-hand market and was originally a mass-produced substitute for the more expensive solid silver version. By changing this inexpensive and unwanted object into a work of art, Petry has transformed it into a one-of-a-kind object it originally sought to mimic.
