'Unmaking' a sculpture

I spend about four days a week at my workshop, making sculptures mainly in metal. Most recently I have been re-working a two year old sculpture called 'Silent Embrace' (it's on my website under 'current works') for exhibition next month in Sydney at 'Sculpture by the Sea.' Most of the time in the workshop I am making things, but in this case I am destroying the first 'Silent Embrace' and making it again, only reusing the 16mm thick base plate.

Why? That's a question I'm often asked and I guess it boils down to quality control and artistic pride. The original piece was beginning to rust inside, and the paint job on the outside was not great. I figured that it would take as long, if not longer, to try to repair the current piece as it would to actually make it from scratch again. And this time, two years later, my fabrication skills and knowledge are a lot more sophisticated. The result will be a very good piece that I am happy to exhibit and sell. It is the same sculpture, unique, and identical in appearance to the first version of it. Just made and finised better.

But it is a funny feeling to take the cut-off saw to what looks like a perfectly good sculpture...