Virgin Islands sculptor Aragorn Dick-Read is scheduled to arrive today in Kazakhstan, where he will represent the territory during the central Asian country’s Nomad Energy Festival.
During his month-long stay, Mr. Dick-Read will assemble a two-metre-tall fire sculpture.
Unlike the circular steel structures he usually builds, Mr. Dick-Read will fashion this one into a cube, he explained on Monday.
“I’ve designed it here and sent the images in [Computer Assisted Design] files to Kazakhstan, where they’re cutting it out with a laser cutter,” Mr. Dick-Read said. “It’s the first time I’m able to design something and send it outside of Tortola and get it made into a sculpture.”
In the past, he explained, he has built his fire sculptures completely by hand.
The artist was invited to the festival in February through a friend he met two years ago in Italy.
“I said to her, ‘If there’s any work coming up in Kazakhstan, let me know,’” Mr. Dick-Read said. “I’m being put out there on TV as an international artist/celebrity, which is cool. They’re expecting over two million people throughout the festival.”
Though it’s not a “high paying job,” the trip gives Mr. Dick-Read an opportunity to represent the VI and to market his craft, he explained.
“I’ve been making fire sculptures for the last 20 years, and they’ve got a little attention all over the world,” he said. “The images I’ve chosen for this sculpture are prehistoric petroglyphdesigns of Kazakhstan’s nomadic traditions, and I’ve interpreted them on the cube.”
Mr. Dick-Read plans to tour the country when he’s not working on the fireball.
“It’s good for the BVI that we are going to get some kind of recognition and representation over there,” he said.
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