HUMMING
Bonington Gallery
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham
Sculpture
Humming: three large sculptures 'Folly', 'With Fear and Trembling' and 'Baptism'. with Brigette Jurack, a lecturer at Liverpool School of Art, showing a series of monochromatic drawings.
The three sculptures were created as individual works and in this show they were brought together whilst they are large scale presences they symbolise a spiritual journey ifluenced by the paralles to be found between the human condition and architecture.
`Folly' already rich in architectural references was the first work to be produced. The overwhelming heaviness and menace of the piece describe the moment reached before spiritual awakening. It also has psychological reference to human folly, the title came from the Biblical term to describe human anguish, both self-inflicted and causal. The hinges which cannot be moved suggest thwarted opportunity and oppression, sensory deprivation and isolation, it is indeed a dark place.
`With Fear and Trembling' is in direct contrast to Folly but stills bears the stamp of pain or struggle. Though potentially a way of escape the title taken from the Bible 'Work out thy salvation with fear and trembling, I saw this piece as possibly providing shelter too.
The third piece in the exhibition `Baptism' is constructed from found steel and glass, going against all previous objectives of construction; found materials where only virgin materials were seen as appropriate and material symbolism where this was previously rejected. `Baptism' describes spiritual birth and cleansing and a fresh approach to creating. The double layer of thick glass appears green and inspires images of water.
Apprehension
Mere Jelly Exhibition
Transmission Gallery
Glasgow,Scotland
Presençes Reais
Arvora Cooperativa
Oporto, Portugal
'Apprehension' takes the form of a drawbridge, the structure relates to concerns with boundary and the conflict arising from this; inclusion, exclusion, imprisonment or freedom, etc. It also questions the perception of, and the reality of each when viewed in its antithesis. The ambiguity maintained between acceptance and rejection in the partly opened drawbridge is the visual evocation of `listening to a call'. Material tautness provides the image of opposing action spiritually and emotionally. `Receive' is the physical image of inner apprehension and indicates the mystery of something beyond our understanding.
Whilst in architecture the wall defines interior and exterior in the human realm it is the skin. The architecture reflects metaphorically the broader socially evident fears and concerns. "The skin is the line of demarcation, a periphery, the form, the shape, the first clue to identifying in a society". From Intercourse by Andrea Dworkin. If, once, skin and cloth were metaphors for identity and Divinity (eg.in the painting of religious scenes by Leonardo) then, now, contemporary architecture is an image of humanity alienated from God. This condition of alienation reminded me of the account of The Tower of Bable in which we see "man, divided, longing for escape from the world which is all he has, tries literally to build his way out of this condition". Today we have accelerated building up and destruction in our cities, the endemic condition of contemporary life.
The opening (or closing) Apprehension is a metaphor for acquiescence. As the architect, Tadao Ando states "I believe that tension should be as present in acceptance as in rejection, In architecture, this tension signifies an intense confrontation between the inside and the outside". `Receive' uses architectural references to describe humanity's desire to transcend boundary; transcending self thus escaping isolation and separation.
This work was commissioned for an exhibition at Avora Cooperativea, Oporto, Portugal. The exhibition titled ' Presençes Reais' (Real Presences), the sculptures 'Receive I' and 'Receive II' was a continuation of these ideas using local materials of corrugated steel and plastic, rope with sacks containing local sand.
Veil
Oldknows Factory,
Nottingham
The word ‘Veil’ is used as source material to explore emotional and physical boundaries. Three sculptures explore this through referencing, architecturer, Buckminster-Fuller’s geodesic forms, architectural domes and French philosopher, Gaston Bachelard’s ‘Poetics of Space’.
The titles of each work Odyssey, Without and (Self) Contained are concerned with the psychologiacal and spiritual ideas that ocurred in response to the word 'Veil' . This early body of work was the beginning of an enquiry that developed into exploring the notion of the parallel between the human condition and arcitecture.
The exhibition included work by Michelle Keating (matter paintings) and Bea Rose (window installation).
Formal Elan
Beyond the Curtain Exhibition,
Nottingham Playhouse
'Beyond the Curtain' Formal Elan' maquette (sketch up by Paul Wilson) it combines architectural references with a physical action straining upwards the steel cables can be seen to be restraining or securing this movement. Mik Godley Neo-Baroque painter exhibited a series of large-scale pieces, intended for enclosed and open spaces on a grand scale.
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