As they rise into the air, David Borgerding’s finely balanced, tapering bronze forms convey two basic human desires: transformation and hope. By working only with abstract forms, Borgerding’s sculptures become magnets for the viewer’s associations, as they often conjure a body in motion. These imaginative associations lead to moments of inwardness and self-reflection by the viewer. How do we identify with these works? What do they tell us about ourselves? For all their formal beauty, their real strength lies in the open-ended dialogue they provoke and the questions they raise.
One path these questions lead down is their relationship to nature’s forms. They stir up a wide range of associations, ranging from the organic to the inorganic. Their scarred surfaces evoke the passage of time as well as register the changing light. This interaction with the elemental world reminds us that we all live in time, and that nothing, not even a sculpture made out of bronze, is impervious to its effects.
At the same time, in their unique balance, where large forms are balanced on smaller ones, we see something approaching the uncanny. Joined together, they embody an undeniable joy, a feeling of aspiration, and persistence. Made of different, unique forms, they can be seen as an unnamable entity or as a group of distinct parts, which need each other to exist. In these ways, Borgerding’s sculptures mirror the best parts of civilization, from the individual desire to change and improve, to the collective recognition that we need each other to survive and flourish, and become something more than the sum of our parts. Borgerding’s sculptures speak to these things with a rare sincerity.
John Yau
David Borgerding received his M.F.A. at Savannah College of Art & Design. Based in New Orleans for the past twenty five years, he has earned grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and his work is included in prestigious private, corporate, and institutional collections in North America, Europe, and Asia.