Collapse I

Though South African artist Ledelle Moe’s anthropomorphic figures evoke a human element, they are also distinctly structural. The artist relies on two fundamental materials to create her larger-than-life figurative sculptures: concrete and steel. She constructs the frame by welding steel bars and then covers it with construction mesh before applying concrete. Weighing approximately 12,000 pounds, *Collapse I* required the use of a crane, an arc welder, and several assistants to install. The sculpture sprawls on an exposed site along the crest of a hill cradled by a stand of trees, a massive human form lying on its side, a monument that has toppled over. Thus situated, visitors may approach it from various angles, each offering a distinct perspective on its voluminous form. *Collapse I* plays with seemingly opposed notions of what is animal and human, masculine and feminine. These physical attributes give solid form to the artist’s more abstract queries about permanence and impermanence in the course of history.