Totemic’ is surely one of the most ubiquitous adjectives for sculpture. I have certainly used it countless times, although I confess that, until recently, I did not know the origin of the word. The prologue to Jo Baring’s first solo-authored book, Totem: The Untold Story of Sculpture, reveals that her title is in fact an eighteenth-century Englishman’s phonetic approximation of the indigenous Canadian Ojibwe words, ‘odoodeman’ or ‘ototeman’, meaning ‘his clan’ or ‘he is a relative of mine’, stemming from the Algonquian-language base meaning ‘to dwell together’. To describe an artwork as ‘totemic’ or ‘a totem’, then, is to consider it as a vessel for identity and a site of human connection, intimately linked to emotional relationships with place. This subjective and enigmatic quality is ostensibly the subject of Baring’s new book, which provides a welcoming introduction to the totem, sculpture – a medium which many know little about.

Split into five thematic sections, the book is written almost as a travelogue, with Baring as an engaging and generous guide, taking the reader with her as she journeys around the globe, from the Scottish Outer Hebrides to the forests of rural Romania, the north coast of Spain and the salt lakes of the western deserts of the U.S.A.; to Japan, China, Russia, India, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Germany, Italy, France and Brazil. Baring’s story of sculpture is gloriously international and looks beyond the traditional urban centres of art. Notably, every sculpture in the book can also be seen by anyone, either in a museum or gallery, or on public display in the open air. Her discussions of artworks, underpinned by a wealth of research, are punctuated by wonderfully evocative descriptions of the places where they can be found and the book’s travel-diary aesthetic is additionally evoked by its illustrations: not photographs but charming pencil sketches drawn specially by Julia Ashe. The book elicits an overwhelming urge to follow in Baring’s footsteps, to experience these objects in the flesh and find out more.

Baring is acutely aware of the ‘thorns’ associated with the word totem (which, she reveals, many advised her against using), but she deals with the term’s colonial connotations and the story of colonialism and modern art with sensitivity and honesty, particularly in the book’s third section, ‘Between Bodies’, and continuously encourages us to question our own perceptions of visual culture. The 41 artists discussed in the book, including Constantin Brancusi, Louise Bourgeois, Julie Brook, Eduardo Chillida, Antony Gormley, Bharti Kher, Yayoi Kusama and Wangechi Mutu, as well as a host of unknown makers from across the millennia, represent a broad spectrum of ideas and cultural backgrounds. Their work displays a diverse array of sculptural media, from carved wood, stone and ivory, to cast bronze and iron, land art, objet trouvé assemblage, welded steel and even elemental fire and water. Throughout, Baring considers the significance of recurring forms in sculpture, such as the spiral or the hybrid human-animal figure, and explores the importance of placement, not just in relation to geography, but as a means of enabling a sculpture’s active participation in a community as a physical entity that not only mirrors human emotion, but can have the power to forge identity and culture, and define spaces. Public sculptures are routinely overlooked as objects, but are often integral to the lives of those who live with them. As Baring perceptively notes, painting is thought to have more feeling, yet sculptures cause far more passionate debates.

It should be noted that Baring’s story of sculpture in Totem is very much a story of modern sculpture. Only a handful of the 88 artworks discussed in the book were made pre-1900, and of those, the majority are prehistoric or hail from the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. However, as is stated in the opening sentence of Baring’s author’s note: ‘this book is not intended as a history of sculpture’, but rather a personal story of exploration and discovery, predominantly through the lens of the artistic production of our own era, in which Baring has immersed herself for more than 25 years. Nevertheless, the author moves effortlessly across time periods, documenting the historical backdrop to the creation of the artworks discussed, and evoking the contemporary milieu in which they were made. Throughout the varied episodes that unfold in the book, Baring suggests that sculpture – the totem – can be a bridge between the rational scientific world and the realms of religion and myth, between the economic and political realities of industry and migration and their importance to a sense of community and belonging. Above all, she demonstrates its capacity to communicate what is sometimes impossible to express in words about human feeling and our interactions with the world.

 

 

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