Ron Arad sculpts 'Love Songs' in both marble and paper

UK based designer and artist, Ron Arad, recently started work on his latest project dubbed ‘Love Songs’. On being asked what the initial idea was behind choosing ‘Love Song’ for his playful wordplay, Arad says,“I like words, I like anagrams, I like palindromes, but I wanted it to be visually stimulating..so, I began experimenting.” The result is a diverse range of sculptures and objects that spell ‘love’ and ‘song’ as reflections of each other.

‘Love Songs’ is an ongoing series that was conceptualised during the pandemic and went into production this year.  It comprises both small and large creations. Arad has sculpted the words on the pages of books and covers of vinyl records to create a unique body of work, where each piece differs in appearance from the other despite carrying the impressions of the same words. Arad designed the covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, Elvis Presley, The Velvet Underground and The Beatles.

Further, Arad also developed his initial sketches into larger installations and sculptures that are made by extruding the letters of the word and twisting them to mirror the phrase on opposite ends of the piece. He experiments with various materials such as marble, stainless steel, stone and paper. On being asked what material he thinks comes alive best for ‘Love Songs’, Arad says,“There are no bad materials and good materials, it depends what you do with them.” Love Songs’ larger pieces are seamlessly sculpted out of marble. “A marble producer from Verona visited my place and asked me to give him something difficult to work on. So, I gave him the Love Song, to sculpt out of marble, and he did it amazingly well,” narrated Arad, reminiscing the initial stages of his Love Songs series.

Building on his long-running series of works, Arad is now in the process of creating a larger three-metre piece of Love Songs that will be displayed at the Salone del mobile fair this year. “My favourite Love Song is the one I haven’t created yet!” declares Arad. His previous renditions of Love Songs have also been displayed at the Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv and at several other outdoor locations.