Arnaldo Pomodoro: Sphere & Crucifix

The most famous of Arnaldo Pomodoro’s work is called Sphere within a Sphere, also known as Sfera con Sfera in his native Italian language. 'It is a monumental series of sculptures featuring a large bronze sphere with seemingly damaged surface and complicated inner design consisting of another smaller, broken sphere inside. The artist created this sphere for the Vatican in the 60s, but due to its international popularity, Pomodoro was commissioned to build the same sculpture for important institutions and organizations worldwide. At the moment, Sphere within a Sphere is located at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, Trinity College in Dublin, The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, Tel Aviv University in Israel and a couple of other locations.

Since the original design was created for the Vatican, the idea behind it is related to Christianity. Pomodoro claims that the outer sphere is the metaphor for Christianity while the inner sphere represents the Earth and people, suggesting that our world is contained within the bigger, sacred world of Catholicism. The layers of the inner sphere which contain gears are the symbol of intricacy and subtlety of our world. Pomodoro explained the motif of spheres in one of his interviews: A sphere is a marvelous object, from the world of magic and wizards. It reflects everything around it and it can easily get transformed or become invisible, leaving only its interior, tormented and corroded, full of teeth. Pomodoro feels puzzled by the perfect form of sphere and at the same time provoked to break its pristine roundness and cause the internal conflict, tension which is threatening to rip apart the entire form.

In addition to Sphere within a Sphere, Pomodoro designed many other pieces which found their home around the globe. For example, he created a large fiberglass crucifix for the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Wisconsin. The sculpture is famous for its enormous, fourteen foot in diameter crown of thorns above the head of the Christ’s figure.'

Pomodoro says: 'My goal was to create a highly symbolic and expressive work in which suffering and glory, the human and the divine were united in the moment of the Crucifixion. But an approach to Christ as a human being also required His presence as a human figure: I therefore sought the collaboration of Giuseppe Maraniello, who in constructing his works has always considered the figure to be fundamental.

The radiant crown is the symbol of the Passion—the crown of thorns—and transforms into an enormous halo, whereas Christ, rather than on the Cross, is himself the Cross. I see this as a truly singular work and I believe it can be understood by everyone in an intuitive and immediate way.

The crown, charged with oversized thorns, spikes, and nails, shows full and empty spaces, and is constructed of wood, fiberglass, and copper powder. The light which falls from above on its numerous faceted surfaces refracts into thousands of gleams and iridescences, producing, here as well, a kind of reverberation, as though to “illuminate” those who are here in prayer.'

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Rush - The Sphere: A Kind Of Dream.