In his career Mel Kendrick hews closely to minimalism’s refusal of figuration, or depiction of recognizable objects, creating what he terms “self-referential” objects. Blue Holes II began humbly as a block of unfinished wood that Kendrick sourced directly from a sawmill. The artist’s work is process-driven: eschewing preparatory drawings, he interacts responsively with the material, allowing the varying physical properties of the wood to guide the emergence of the sculpture’s form.

In Blue Holes II, Kendrick incorporates pieces of wood taken from a previous sculpture, embracing chance in the constitution of the artwork and experimenting with interior and exterior, positive and negative space. The base of this sculpture is a wooden worktable, scored and scuffed as if by years of use. The piece is part of the makeshift world of the studio, a reminder that its shape is one among infinite possibilities.