Rolando's pipe aesthetic is decidedly iconoclastic. Sometimes that iconoclasm is overt, as he draws on a vast visual inventory of ideas to create truly novel, completely unconventional, yet brilliant, designs. Sometimes, as is the case with the pipe before me here, that iconoclasm is subtle.
Superficially, this is a fairly straightforward, Danish style influenced horn. The shank is round at the end, but then pinches much more on the sides than it does on the top and bottom, making the profile of the composition much more tubular than would be the case with a more traditionally Danish interpretation of the shape. He's playing subtly here, but in really new ways, creating a strikingly new take on the shape.
And, of course, the sandblasting is just brilliant. The regular, deeply etched rings of grain radiate out from the line that connects the top of the end of the shank to the rim. While it is very regular, there's enough character there to give it a sense of explosive vitality as the wood ripples outwards and downwards. It all terminates into beautifully sandblasted birdseye on the bottom/front of the horn. Just extraordinary!
Browse
