The cycling figure used in Fœtus to Man was originally invented by MacMurtrie as part of a larger work: The Mechanical Mural. The Mechanical Mural extends the standard public mural genre in both form and narrative potential. The Mural MacMurtrie is developing depicts the cycles of life in mechanically animated vignettes of cast metal. These vignettes illustrate birth, various types of growth and development, and death, all intertwined in form, narrative, and function. One of the central figures in the Mural presents a direct visual link between time and life, and was a natural candidate for elaboration when MacMurtrie was called upon to create a time-based, kinetic work for the Lille permanent commission.

The figures in The Mechanical Mural are cast in aluminum relief. In the move from two to three dimensions required to create Fœtus to Man, the artist rendered the left and right sides of the completed three-dimensional figure differently. Unlike the original mural figure, Fœtus to Man displays a youthful side upon its rise to noon, and turns to show an aged side upon its decent to six o’clock. At six o’clock the figure rotates to again show its younger side, and begin the cycle anew.

The chameleon properties of the figure were inspired not only by the artist’s personal experience with aging, but by that of watching his family and friends succumb to the same process... becoming not only older, but of the older generation. In this way, the Fœtus to Man sculpture is an homage not only to the Flanders clock-making tradition, but to the nature of time and tradition itself.

Work on The Mechanical Mural continues in ARW’s move to enlarge its body of public sculpture in America and abroad. Currently, ARW is developing mechanical mural projects whose characters and environments will be created and animated by children of the communities in which the murals will be permanently displayed. One such project is on display in Dublin, Ireland.

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