Artwork in response to: Jenny Manning, Seed Pod (detail)  2019, 75cm x 100cm, copper wire. Image courtesy Brenton McGeachie.

1

What to write about this bronzed art?
Of its flowered centres and its net mesh pods.
And the gaps that make it stand off the wall and vibrate.
Later I see the butterflies congregated in a mass of filigreed wings.
Their golden bodies twisted into myriad shapes.
But the Seed Pod is self-contained.
And striking on the feelings of awe at the creation of such
strong wings and powerful bodies.
Taken as a whole it is an animal of disparate parts shaped into one entity.
Its a rough diamond made of wire and strips of metal that pushes
out into the world.
And into the viewers' senses.
A solid formed from spaces and centres.

2

But I can’t eat the Seed Pod.
Its so tough - struggling out of the wall like some kind of alien being
fighting for form.
Or like a flower growing into bloom.
I wonder - is that what the Coronavirus does.
Bursts into the bloodstream to poison the host.
If it has anything like the power of the Seed Pod it will be unstoppable.
Even now it could fly.
Like a kite held together with wire that soars without wind.
It looks like Xmas - shiny baubles of bronze and gold.
And the net work is the tree on which we make our mark.
But it could also be a trap.
Like a metal Venus Flytrap it could lure admirers into its reach
and swallow them whole.

3

Here I am again looking at this thing.
That the artist has put together for what?
To move or impress?
To show how gifted she is?
Or is it just a case of using up old material.
The bits and bobs of a crowded studio from which this creation has flowered.
In fact it is one big bloom of a golden bronze rose coming out to play,
or show, or get us.
I find myself looking away.
Am I full of the image and its strength of purpose?
Have I gone beyond appreciation?
Is it boring now?
I think not.
Coming back for the third time has made me realise what
Jenny Manning has done.
She has taken lengths of wire and strips of metal and
made a masterpiece.

By Maurice Corlett