Perch

About Perch

This indoor tabletop figurative sculpture includes a fish and is forged from bronze that is patinated.

The award-winning sculptures of Susan Valyi were often created from an imaginative use of ‘found’ materials. Her recent discovery of a nearby forgery has allowed her to play with a new material—bronze. This is one of a series of figurative pieces she has hand-forged and patinated in a rich turquoise-blue colour. Here a simple human figure stands on a small pedestal, hands on hips, and in an amusing ‘twist’ a small fish sits on its head. Valyi is known for injecting humour into her work—a distinctive and delightful hallmark of her approach to sculpture that always begins with a sketch.

(This sculpture) “is inspired by a famous photograph of Salvador Dali with a baby dolphin on his head. I identify with images that maybe don’t entirely make sense but have a kind of humour in them. My countless drawings also reflect this attitude.” Susan Valyi

Susan Valyi was born in Vancouver, B.C. and studied art for two years at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax in the mid-1970s. She has received two awards—one from the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and another from the New Art Festival in Ottawa. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout Canada and is held in numerous private collections.