Fireplace Shroud
Robin Blau

The concept for the abstract sculptural forms of the Fireplace Shroud come from the "visuals" of tendrils of smoke from a fire, in which the smoke tendrils move, twist, and flow in a never-ending and fascinating movement of changing form, especially when the fire is in an enclosed space (e.g. an outdoor fireplace shelter) and the smoke moves out and along the ceiling. The abstract forms also subliminally relate to other similar organic, linear, and ever-moving elements which are part of the visual bank of images in everyone’s consciousness, such as the long tendrils or arms of seaweed or kelp within the cracks in stone sea beds on the beach along the Australian coast, where one sees the dark kelp moving just below the water’s surface as each wave sequence within the surf comes in and recedes. Whether in smoke or in the sea, these moving tendrils are extremely beautiful but also implicitly dangerous, with a slight, ever-present sense of menace implied—hence the fireplace shroud tendrils.