visit Chau Chak Wing Museum website

In December 2024, Roman Spectres was updated to include Stephen Ralph's artwork The Other Woman. This piece is made up of four marble heads, each one a copy taken from a plaster carving. The artwork sits alongside the 2000-year-old marble portraits, a subtle intervention that, in the words of the artist recognises "the continuity of artmaking, from ancient times to now...."

artist statement

The Other Woman is a work made up of four marble heads, each head a copy taken from a different plaster carving. Earlier this year, I conducted a trial sculpture class with the aim to copy from observation. We worked from an old plaster cast taken from a copy of a Roman marble statue of Venus, which in turn, is a copy of an ancient Greek bronze statue of Aphrodite.

Weeks later, the heads were randomly piled up in the backyard of my studio and an artist-friend suggested I could carve the whole composition in marble. At first, the idea made me laugh, but then, three days late, I found myself carving the first head.

As an artist, I often don't know why I am inspired to make something. Yet, recognising the continuity of artmaking, from ancient times to now, gives me a sense of comfort and stamina to stay the path. The Other Woman is a work tracing this thinking, the past, and the present.