Ronnie Brown and John Robinson discussing knots at his studio

IMMORTALITY HEIGHT 6FT (2M) POLISHED BRONZE 1982 "Passing on the Torch of Life"

"Soon after my mother's death, our eldest son's wife was expecting a baby. Instead of being the middle generation, I became the older one, and a grandfather. I began to think of doing a sculpture that would capture the passing on of the precious flame of existence.

Experimenting with a piece of copper tubing soon led me to a trefoil knot. Here were my three generations expressed as loops. How could I make the surface move through time and become infinite ?

The answer came to me in the form of match boxes. I purchasd 100, and stuck them together in threes, along their strike sides. I then threw away the draws and the matches. I made a three foot high trefoil knot out of one inch pipe, leaving a gate, onto which I could thread the middle match box cover. Low and behold, with a little twisting in the right places, a Möbius band formed around the trefoil.

I believe that IMMORTALITY is made up of one's memories of the past and the memories one leaves behind. I see this Symbolic Sculpture not only as a continuous journey through generations, but also the scroll on which is recorded the memories of each generation."

John Robinson