Conjunction, 1987-2004, Black Indian basalt
Conjunction is perhaps the most figurative work Stephen Cox has ever made. Coming as he did from minimalism, and having evolved a rich abstract vocabulary, this work came as a surprise to the sculptor. It is his belief that some stones possess an inner meaning and a history, that he as a sculptor can reveal and bring to the light of day. Conjunction, even more than others, seems to have sprung out of the stone and in more than one way constituted a challenge. Having spent so long in India, Cox felt compelled to respond as an artist to the almost overwhelmingly rich spirituality and culture he was exposed to daily, while at the same time making sense of his own. In the Hindu cosmology, Shiva is omnipresent and is shown here as Ardhanaresvara - both male and female, when he split himself in male and female, as Parvati, in order to procreate. In western terms the figure might allude to a more Freudian reference as the ‘conjunction’ of both female and male tendencies in oneself.