Localisation: Piaristické náměstí
The sculpture is titled Skull. It depicts a large, simplified skull built from light-coloured wooden planks and beams. The wood has a natural colour. In some places it is almost cream-coloured, in others warmer, yellowish. The planks show grain, knots, cutting marks and screws. The material has not been hidden under paint. The construction reveals the way it was made: the joints, strips, screws and overlapping elements. The object is not a realistic anatomical model. It is a spatial construction that recreates the general shape of a human skull. Some elements resemble shelves or fragments of scaffolding.
The sculpture stands on a paved square, beside a light-coloured wall of a building. The wall has a rough, plastered surface. As a result, the wooden skull stands out against the calm, almost uniform background. The object can be walked around and viewed from different sides. The construction stands directly on the ground. It has no separate pedestal. Its lower beams form a base that stabilises the whole structure.
The skull is larger than a human head. It is the size of a piece of furniture or a child’s hiding place. It may be about one and a half metres high and about two metres long. The largest part of the sculpture is a form resembling the upper part of a skull. It has the shape of a box with a rounded, cut-off outline. At the front it is wide and slightly tilted. The sides recede towards the back. The top does not form a smooth dome. It has been assembled from straight planks. For this reason, the rounded shape of the skull is suggested through flat, geometric planes.
The front of the sculpture resembles the face of a skull. On both sides there are large, irregular openings. They function as eye sockets. They are not round or symmetrical as in a realistic skull. They are formed by gaps between diagonal and vertical beams. Their edges are straight, built from planks set at different angles. Between the eye sockets there is a narrow, protruding construction made of vertical and diagonal planks. It suggests the nasal bone or the central part of the face. It consists of several light-coloured elements that descend and slightly divide the front part of the sculpture into two sides. Below this there is a wide, rectangular frame. It forms the lower part of the face and the base of the jaw. The jaw is indicated in a very simplified way. At the bottom of the front of the sculpture there is a row of vertical planks placed next to one another with gaps between them. They resemble teeth, but they do not have their exact shape. It is rather a rhythm of simple wooden elements. The lower edge of the jaw is wide and massive.
The upper part of the skull consists of horizontal planks arranged in layers. The planks run parallel to one another and form bands. At the front they are arranged broadly, almost horizontally. On the sides they change direction and are set more vertically or diagonally. This arrangement orders the surface and emphasises the different planes of the form: the front, the side and the back.
The edges of the sculpture are distinct, in places sharp and angular. There is no soft modelling or smooth transition here. The skull is formed from straight cuts, sloping planks and connected beams. Even so, the whole retains the recognisable shape of a head. The clearest elements are: the large upper part of the skull, the empty eye sockets, the central narrowing of the face and the lower row of planks resembling teeth.
The inside of the sculpture is empty. The planks form the outer shell and load-bearing skeleton, but the centre remains open. Inside there are additional beams and crosspieces that strengthen the whole structure.