BENJAMIN LAWSON ARTIST

THERMITE CASTING

"History is not Time; nor is evolution. They are both consequences. Time is a state: the flame in which there lives the salamander of the human soul."

Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time

"I have set up a cabinet in which I have placed many admirable and monstrous things which I have drawn from the womb of the Earth, and which give evidence of what I say, and no one will be found who will not be forced to admit them to be true."

Bernard Palissy

This was a commission for my friend Sally Madge's birthday celebrations. Utilising thermite casting I not only produced a spectacle for the event but also cast her birthday present in molten iron at the same time as part of the process, an egg (a symbol of fertility and rebirth), which was presented to her at the end of the evening.

In memory of Sally Madge, artist and inspiration