This splayed, aquatic form with arms or fins reminiscent of a manta ray was one of several similar pieces produced in the early 1980s, during Turnbull’s bronze revival. Turnbull was strongly influenced by fellow Situation Group member Laurence Alloway’s interest in the symbolic power of sculpture, and the flat frontal nature of these sculptures, as well as their relative simplicity, open up their potential as signs without providing a definitive answer as to their meaning. This was part of a design mechanism meant to encourage conversation and varying interpretations. A viewer might understand Ariel as representing an abstracted human torso, an animal hide, or a tool head of some kind. An interest in the multi-functionalism of tools - as both practical pieces and works of art - was another key element of Turnbull’s practice shared with Alloway. The commitment to not discriminating between so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ art (which also carried more problematic ideas regarding ‘primitivism’) led to an interest in representing these tool shapes in art. Ariel is one of a series of similar flat shaped and simplified sculptures Turnbull produced in this period, all named after either tools, or, as in this case, spiritual or religious figures. The latter is another example of Turnbull’s interest in totemic or sacred artwork.