In conversation with… sculptor Michael Visocchi
27/01/2025
We chat with sculptor Michael Visocchi about his upcoming installation at the former whaling station on South Georgia.
Michael Visocchi is a sculptor who lives and works in Angus, Scotland. He uses a variety of materials, including wood, metal, thread and card. His subjects reflect nature, landscape, the built environment and the human trace. His themes explore the world of science, the character of geology and place, and the human impact on habitat.
Michael’s latest commission is a piece called Commensalis: The Spirit Tables of South Georgia which will be installed on the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. The work will be one of the most remote art installations on Earth.
Grytviken was home to the island’s first whaling station established in 1904, the remains of which still stand at the water’s edge. Over 150 artists from around the world applied for the opportunity, commissioned by the South Georgia Heritage Trust and the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The judging panel chose Michael’s proposal which celebrates "the ecological recovery of an island that was once at the centre of the whaling industry".
We caught up with Michael to chat about his upcoming installation at the former whaling station.
How would you describe your sculptures to someone who has never seen them?
They’re handmade, three-dimensional objects for the most part, mainly fabricated from materials such as wood, metal, plastics, card, rope, resins and even thread. I sometimes also work two-dimensionally using drawing, printmaking and photography.
Michael's studio in Angus (Michael Visocchi)
My sculpture is always made by myself, which is very important to me, unless the scale is too large of course. Thematically (or conceptually) my work is a visual meditation on the landscape or the way we mark our landscapes. The forms found in my work sometimes appear like graphic interpretations of the landscape. The objects I make invariably become ‘questions’ about where we sit as humans within our landscapes and our much broader effect on the planet.
What do you think is the most important role of a sculpture? And how does this come across in your work?
To make you think I guess, that’s the principal purpose of all art in my view. But sculpture can make you respond emotionally with one’s body too because unlike two-dimensional media (such as painting or film) it inhabits our world. It can alter the way you move in a space and suggest how you approach it.
Michael at Grytviken (Stewart Garden)
Outdoor works also change in feel to the sun’s light or the weather. So, to be controversial for one moment I believe sculpture can commend a greater potency than most of the other plastic arts when it’s used to unpack complex subject matter. Such as the story of whaling for example.
You work with a variety of materials. Do you have a favourite?
Oh, it’s wood. It always was and probably always will be. I can work quickly, efficiently and confidently with wood. I love its adaptability and its ease of use. I also love its colour even though I often paint it. And I love its smell when you cut it. I have a background in joinery so this is likely what explains my deep affinity to it.
Please tell us about Commensalis: The Spirit Tables of South Georgia.
The work is in seven parts or seven tables. There were six species of whale persecuted throughout the whaling years: fin, blue, sei, humpback, sperm and southern right. About 175,250 were killed over around 60 years.
The commissioners of the artwork, the South Georgia Heritage Trust wanted a site-specific response to the whaling station so these seven tables reference the oil tanks that held the whale oil but they’re low and are more like large round tables. They also wanted the artist to celebrate the great hope of the return of the whales.
There is one table for each species and one stand-alone table, known as the Key Table, which unpacks the whole story. This is a more explicit memorial if you like. The Key Table sets out the precise numbers of whales taken in a nightingale chart. This chart is formed entirely from rivets, heritage rivets salvaged from the repair stores at the whaling stations on South Georgia.
An impression of how the spirit tables will look once in place (Adam Proctor)
Why rivets? Well, the whaling industry was essentially held together entirely by rivets whether in the industrial architecture or the whaling ships. But the rivets also reference the barnacles that find their home on the flanks and underbellies of whales. The whale barnacles form a ‘commensal’ relationship with the whales in that they neither hinder nor help the whale. The whales and the barnacles live in a sort of benign harmony with each other if you like.
The Key Table will be the first to arrive at Grytviken in November 2025. The other six ‘Sprit Tables’ are yet to come but evoke the hope of the return of the whales. This will be expressed by great swirling patterns on their table tops formed by new stainless steel rivets. Many, many thousands of them. These will shimmer in the South Georgia sunlight. It’s a difficult thing to describe if I’m honest because it’s an entirely visual proposition. But I hope that makes some sense.
How do you go about transforming an idea like that into a physical piece?
I think it is mostly an instinctive thing but it’s also highly practiced too. I’ve been doing this for a long time now. I suppose as a visual artist you have chops like say a musician. You land on certain patterns and chords if you like to express your idea in the best most distilled and elegant way possible. But there’s a large degree of luck involved too. Sometimes I just can’t find the chords and can’t hear the melody for a work. Commensalis was one of those lucky moments where everything came together for me. And others happened to agree. Which is quite important when you’re working to commission (laughs)
How did your visit to South Georgia influence your plans?
Well, I was lucky in that so many great plans and photographs have been made and taken of the whaling station at Grytviken over the years. There’s even a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) survey which is an astonishing thing to behold. So, I seemed to understand the site quite well before my visits.
I think the things that I didn't quite understand were the moveable things such as the animals and the people! I don't think you can ever really be ready for those seals. Their presence has meant that the structural engineer has had to take into consideration the prospect of male fur seals sitting on the tables. And elephant seals, although we had to find out whether they would likely climb. They don't, but the answer was you never can be sure!
Grytviken in South Georgia (George Lemann)
I think the flow of people (visitors) around the tables should hopefully work quite well but I did spend a lot of time watching how people navigate the site when they come ashore from cruise ships and what areas they naturally gravitate towards. I spent a good lump of time on top of the meat loft observing.
I also interviewed visitors as I wanted to know how people felt after arriving. It can be a bewildering site to encounter especially if you’ve just arrived on a zodiac. When I came home after my first visit I built a very detailed site model which has since become exceptionally useful to me.
Do you think sculptures – and art in general – can influence the way people feel and interact with nature?
I think if an artwork is good enough then, yes, it can undoubtedly influence our attitudes toward nature. I think that’s the real privilege that artists have actually. There are many examples of this throughout art history of course.
Barbara Hepworth and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham spring to mind here. I do not doubt in my mind that their work will have influenced the way people feel, value and even understand the natural environment around St Ives.
But I think nature is quite possibly the only thing in our world that truly speaks for itself. That’s because it’s so utterly pure. It doesn’t need art of course. The natural world is its own best exponent. The question is really whether or not people wish to engage with it. For example, where they place nature within their own value system.
A humpback whale feeding near South Georgia (BAS)
I guess the rhythms and patterns and forms and colours and cultural hierarchy (in museums and galleries) within visual art can help establish a point of entry for some to come to value and respect nature more for sure. That can only be a good thing. And so can film and music and literature and theatre and poetry and dance of course. Not musical theatre though. That doesn’t help with anything (laughs).
If you could only choose one of your creations to keep, which one would it be and why?
Well, the truth be told I don't tend to sell very much of my ongoing studio output. This seems pretty common to people who make sculptures though, so I’m a little inundated with my own creations. That’s sometimes useful though when you want to reference a successful way of working or a fruitful technique or to progress an idea but mostly I want to be liberated from it all!
Sometimes I have to hide things away so they’re no longer in my sightline lest they hinder my enthusiasm to start something new. So the answer to your question is nothing!
What's next for you?
Well, getting the Key Table completed over the coming months ready for unveiling in Dundee at the end of June before it makes its journey down to South Georgia. Then hopefully getting into my studio to make some new things. These will most likely be speculative artworks or they might end up in the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition in Edinburgh in the spring.
Oh, and I have to make a new front door for my house and fix the valleys on my house roof!
What luxury item would you take if you were working at Port Lockroy for the season?
Mmm, my lovely Martin acoustic guitar. But I know that might not necessarily be the best for the others down there at Port Lockroy.
Finally, what’s your favourite species of penguin?
Oh, well, that’s easy, it has to be Danny DeVito and his utterly terrifying performance from 1992’s Batman Returns.
I’ve actually spend a reasonable amount of time in the company of both king and gentoo penguins. I really enjoy their company. There are a good few who hang out around the whaling station at Grytviken but currently, they’re mostly moulting so seem a little sheepish and well, down in the dumps.
Southern elephant seals and king penguins at Gold Harbour, South Georgia (Stephen Bolcso)
But a few of the BAS biologists I’ve met down here talk of the sheer attitude of the macaroni penguins. I’ve never met one but from what I understand they’re all a bit, well, angry. I mean, what more can one ask for than a penguin with punk attitude?
So, my favourite species of penguin is the macaroni.
You can learn more about Commensalis: The Spirit Tables of South Georgia at South Georgia Heritage Trust.
Lead image: George Lemann
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