Little Knight
crushed recycled glass bound with resin
areál Přírodovědecké fakulty Jihočeské univerzity, Branišovská – za budovou fakulty v sadu
On the back of a little horse sits a small knight, armed with a sword and with curiosity. The sculpture paraphrases equestrian monuments to warriors, but here it is a tribute to childhood and courage. The boy has stopped in the middle of a meadow and set out to hunt grasshoppers. In his imagination he has crossed the border between the human world and the world of nature — he has saddled a grasshopper and ridden out towards adventure. The fragility of childhood is a challenge to our times: listening to crickets and to the rustle of leaves is quietly being replaced by technology. The screen replaces the meadow, scrolling replaces discovery. The grasshopper carries a double meaning — it is a creature of nature and a symbol of the leap into the unknown. Every person, every generation stands before their own grasshopper. The question is whether we dare to mount it — and whether we still know where to look for it. Recycled glass closes the circle: civilisation made, broke and threw away — and through recycling turned it back into life. Nature is not a backdrop, it is the ground we stand on. And the balance between progress and roots is not weakness — it is the greatest courage.
What the sculpture looks like
Little Knight is a large, colourful outdoor sculpture. It shows a small human figure with a raised sword, sitting on the back of an enormous green insect. The insect resembles a grasshopper or a locust. The whole work feels like a fairy tale, with gentle humour. This is not a scene of threat or battle. It is more like the meeting of a very small hero with a giant inhabitant of the meadow.
The sculpture stands in the grounds of the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia on Branišovská street, in the orchard behind the faculty building. It is made of crushed recycled glass bound with resin. As the artists emphasise, the work paraphrases equestrian monuments to warriors – this time as a tribute to childhood and courage.
The sculpture is larger than a person. The insect alone is several metres long. Together with the plinth and the figure on its back it reaches a height of roughly two and a half to three metres. The whole composition stands on a large low oval plinth.
The plinth is light grey. It has an elongated shape and recalls a flattened boat or a broad base. Its sides are irregular and covered with horizontal wavy lines. They look like layers of material applied one on top of another.
The main part of the sculpture is the enormous insect. Its body is light green, shifting in places into yellowish tones. The surface is not smooth. It has a fine grainy structure and a slight sheen. Seen close up, thousands of tiny pale particles are visible. Because of them the insect looks as if it were made of a mass of glittering fragments rather than a solid material.
The head of the insect is at the front. It is large, rounded and tilted slightly downwards. Enormous bulging eyes protrude at the sides of the head. They are red to wine-coloured and consist of many rounded protrusions. They recall clusters of juicy fruit. Their strong colour contrasts sharply with the green body and immediately draws the eye.
Long segmented antennae grow from the head. They are green, thick and made up of several rounded parts. They point diagonally upwards and slightly back. They do not look fragile like the antennae of a real insect. They resemble soft, deliberately exaggerated aerials.
The insect's trunk is massive and elongated. It is made up of rounded segments. Folds, divisions and raised parts recalling a carapace are visible along the sides. The rear part of the body is long, segmented and tapers towards the end. The wings lie along the body at the sides of the back. They are elongated, slightly triangular, and their surface is covered with shallow lines resembling veins.
The legs are thick, sharply bent and grow from the sides of the body. The front legs – four are clearly visible in all – are close to the head. They have large simplified feet ending in finger-like protrusions. The hind legs are much larger. Regular lengthwise grooves are visible on their inner side.
The knight of the title sits on the insect's back. He is a small naked figure of a boy. He has neither armour nor a helmet, which is a fairly bold choice for a knight. His body is a pale grey-beige that clearly stands apart from the green body of the insect.
The boy sits astride the grasshopper's back. With one hand he leans on its body. The other arm he stretches out in front of him, holding a short straight sword. The sword is pale, simple and raised vertically upwards. Compared with the enormous insect it looks fragile, almost like a toy.
How to find the sculpture
The grounds of the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská street, České Budějovice – in the orchard behind the faculty building. The whole composition stands on a large low oval plinth in light grey and reaches two and a half to three metres including the plinth.
