Amazing Wood Carvings by Ricky Swallows

1 Killing time - A still life done as a carving. The work brings together Swallow’s interests in time-passing, personal and collective memory, everyday experiences and the history of art. The fish and crustaceans are all creatures that Swallow, the son of a fisherman, remembers catching, killing and eating, and the table replicates the one at which his family ate. The work’s title refers to this sense of life stilled in art, to the act of remembering and recording, and to the time spent on this labour-intensive sculpture.

2 Killing Time - As part of his art practice, Swallow hand-carves intricate, naturalistic replicas of items from everyday life, often at life-size. Many of his works follow in the tradition of the vanitas or memento mori – a type of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting that used symbols such as dead animals and human skulls to remind us of our own mortality. Swallow has described his sculptures as ‘evaporated self-portraits’, which call on specific personal memories while also having commonly recognisable subject matter.

3 Killing Time - Great detail went into every aspect of the piece, to the extend that when standing back the peeled lemon looked almost as if it was a real lemon bleached of colour

4 'Killing time' is carved mainly from laminated jelutong, a pale coloured hardwood used commercially for prototypes and pattern-making but also by woodworking hobbyists for whittling. The monochromatic timber and the dramatic side-lighting, devised by Swallow to create strong shadows and highlights, point to the inherent unreality of transcribing animate form into inanimate materials.

5 Killing Time -further example of the detail of the scales and teeth on the fish

6 Killing Time- close up of the lobster

7 Killing Time - close up of the folds in the table cloth

8 Killing Time - Alternative angle and lighting of the peeled lemon and fish

9 Killing Time - Exquisite example of the cloth and the way the lighting adds depth and realness to the work

10 I like this angle as it shows the work that went into the table cloth, including a carved label. Killing time is currently owned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales

11 Longeron - Another still life carving

12 Longeron - Close up showing some of the fine detail in the folds of the cloth

13 Fig. 1. Wood carving resembling crumbled paper

14 Fig. 1 Alternative angle

15 Fig. 2. Strikingly real wood carving of a backpack

16 Fig. 3 - Wood carving resembling crumpled up paper

17 Rehearsal for Retirement

18 Listener - Large carved Conch shell

19 The Bricoleur

20 The Bricoleur - Detail of the shoe. My memory fails me if the label on the back of the heel had the carved brand, or if the other side of the shoe had a carved logo

21 Younger Than Yesterday

22 Unbroken Ways

23 The Exact Dimensions of Staying Behind

24 Everything is Nothing

25 Tokyo Hand - Top

26 Tokyo Hand - Bottom

27 Sleeping Range - Another great example of the level of detail gone into creating the folds of fabric

28 Private Dancer

29 Come Together

30 Fearful Symmetry

31 Caravan - I've cheated a little here since this piece is bronze and not wood, but it was hard to pass up sharing this great work.

32 Caravan - close up of some of the details. It was amazing to see the knots rendered on the balloons.