SOLITUDE

An early meditation on distance, encounter, and the quiet instinct to move toward another. SOLITUDE began with a single figure.

A small bronze form standing alone, without face or gesture, held only by its own presence. Then, at a distance, another appears. There is noticing, curiosity, hesitation. The space between them becomes the subject.

Across the sequence, that space slowly changes. One figure sees the other. They draw closer. They meet. They turn toward one another. Eventually, distance gives way to intimacy.

Nothing dramatic happens. There is no narrative imposed upon them beyond proximity itself. Their bodies are reduced to simple forms, leaving the relationship to be expressed through orientation, scale, silence, and the changing distance between one presence and another.

The sculptures were created through the lost-wax casting process, with green and brown patinas developed across the bronze surfaces. They marked one of my first encounters with material as something more than a means of making form. Wax disappears. Metal takes its place. Heat, oxidation, touch, and time leave their own traces. The object begins to carry a history beyond the hand that shaped it.

Looking back, I can see how much of my later work was already quietly present here.

Solitude would become silence.
Distance would become space.
The encounter between two figures would become a larger question of belonging.

Years later, houses, interiors, bodies, textiles, and places would continue to ask something similar: what happens in the space between ourselves and the world around us?

Perhaps this work was never only about being alone.

Perhaps it was about the moment when solitude becomes aware of another presence — and decides, carefully, to move closer.

Sculpture Installation

Year: 2003
Materials: Bronze, lost-wax casting with green and brown patinas
Dimensions: 12 in. tall by 6 in.
Created at OCAD University, Toronto
Artist: Eduardo Lee
Status: Evolving over time

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