Tom Otterness

The hugely popular figurative works of the sculptor Tom Otterness are best known through his large-scale projects in New York City, but are also to be found elsewhere in North America and Europe. In Scheveningen in Holland a group of twenty-three bronze sculptures by Otterness are permanently installed. In addition to large-format works Otterness’s output is characterized by very small bronze figures, untypical for sculptures in a public open space. They are distinguished by a simple, light-hearted pictorial language indebted to cartoons, and often set together in groups. In their stylized cuteness these amusingly arranged ensembles speak to both adults and children. At the same time they also always have a political dimension, they represent or play with power structures, social value systems and human experience. In ”The Lion and the Mouse“ Otterness portrays the moment in Aesop’s fable in which the power relations between the weak and the strong are reversed: a small mouse sitting upright turns with arms folded behind his back towards the bound and resigned king of the animals who is lying on the ground.