
In this new series of works, Waugh begins to expand upon his exploration of the value we place on ubiquitous objects, exploring the possibilities of trompe l’oeil to make us more cognisant of the objects with which we interact on a daily basis. His Puffer Jacket (2024), for example, plays with our comprehension, tricking the viewer into thinking that this object, which looks, to all intents and purposes, as though it is suspended on a small metal hook screwed into the wall, is as light, soft and insulating as the the item of clothing from which it was modelled. Yet the material properties of the stone from which it is carved could not be further from those of a puffer jacket. These trompe l’oeil artworks, created on a one-to-one scale, can become lost in the everyday lived environment, up to the point at which they are interacted with. At that point, soft becomes hard, warm becomes cold, lightness becomes immense weight, and any notion of functionality disappears. They are pieces of great beauty and exquisit craftsmanship, based upon objects which are rarely thought about in terms of aesthetic merit.
I’m Not a Robot (2021) is, to some degree, a play on René Magritte’s iconic painting, The Treachery of Images, in which the painted calligraphy underneath an image of a pipe states simply, ‘ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (this is not a pipe). Likewise, Waugh’s robotic drill arm is not a working tool of mass industry; instead it is static and entirely un-functional, carved from a single piece of stone. It is there simply to be looked at; admired for the beauty of its form – a marble marvel of both artistry and industry. It is a piece characterised by the artist’s keen sense of irony; a sculpture of a robotic drill arm, which works to create objects formulaically on a vast scale, without creativity or thought, yet made through a painstaking process of hand carving, from a valuable material. The angle of the arm lends it an almost anthropomorphic quality, like a bowed head, pathetic and flaccid – perhaps reflecting its redundancy. On close inspection one realises also that the drill is scribing into itself, reshaping its surface to create a new identity as something other.
Photo (top): Tom carving ‘Puffa Jacket (fast fashion)’. Photo credit: Russell Sach