Sole Occupant

A machine built for two, solved by one.

The seesaw is the first machine most people learn to operate, and the only one that fails when the other person does not arrive. Here the fixed pivot is replaced by a sphere, so the plank finds its own balance and the ride continues with no one on the far end. The child is modelled mid-shout, at the point where the board has stopped rising and has not yet begun to fall.

The figure, the plank and the sphere are cast separately in stainless steel by the lost-wax process in ceramic shell, then brought together in the studio. The single point where the plank meets the sphere is the joint that decides the piece: it is welded from beneath and chased until no seam, no fillet and no change of surface remains, so the plank appears to rest on the sphere rather than to be fixed to it. Elker finishes each cast by hand, deciding piece by piece which planes are taken to mirror and which are held at satin. The signature is cast, never applied — it is cut into the wax before the pour, so it enters the metal at the foundry and cannot be added to a finished work. The edition number is struck by hand with steel punches into the rear edge of the base.