Spotted on a side street whilst on a recent trip to Singapore...
Inanimate symbolism
Simple mannequins from a recycling yard.
To me there’s a poignant and severe harshness
here in what is fundamentally a pile of inanimate plastic mouldings.
Once heaped in a mass or stood in a group
they transform into a macabre image of the atrocities associated with the
genocides over history.
Trust in Love
Here’s my latest piece, which when finished will be solid
cast in stainless steel, polished and mounted onto a Corten steel base –
currently the wax is with Lost Wax Developments awaiting investment casting.
This piece portrays the all too frequent way in which the conviction,
hope and belief in love can be ill-founded - the heart of one is deeply imbedded
in the other, the trust of love destroyed, eradicated completely, with the
innocent painfully bleeding and the guilty dominating, overpowering and
ultimately remaining unscathed.
It’s another piece in my series of sculptures exploring the often
over romantic notions surrounding love, and especially the symbolic heart that
depicts it….
“Unrequited” – The crippling agony and suffocating loneliness
of love that is not returned.
“Without” – The confusion in life where love simply does not
exist.
“The End” – The dark destruction and totality of love that
ends.
“Search” – The often endless and fruitless search for love
in life.
“Lost” – The emptiness and lifelessness of lost love.
“Imprisoned” – The confinement of a love unavailable.
“Give and take” – The loss of one’s heart when given to
another.
….each one bringing an unseen opposing image and significance
to the common perception.
The piece is scheduled for casting in late February, and
once complete will feature here.
The Effect of Her
This piece is quite personal, and was
created from a long and powerful emotion that led to a small idea which
just kept growing inside me.
The heart is partially split, but the
split line is that of a silhouette of a girl – you can interpret the piece however you want, has the girl has broken the heart, is she responsible for its repair, or perhaps it’s
only her that can hold the heart together….
….for me, it’s all of those things, because she is my
heart, simply by lying beside me….
The piece is solid stainless steel
with the central split being wire eroded. The shaping and finishing of the
heart is entirely by hand, and the piece is mounted on oak to provide a warm
yet contrasting background and is wall hung.
Size 130mm x 150mm
Sit down and admire
The interaction of hard materials with natural products is one that continually impresses me.
I've mixed woods and metals in previous pieces (such as "Imprisoned" in the December '14 blog post) but here is and example from Uriel Natan Schwartz, who clearly understands the potential beauty of the combination...
Just perfect....
I've mixed woods and metals in previous pieces (such as "Imprisoned" in the December '14 blog post) but here is and example from Uriel Natan Schwartz, who clearly understands the potential beauty of the combination...
Just perfect....
Titles for hammers
Here's a new piece that's really just a bit of fun, coming about from me wondering whether I could actually make it or not more than anything else...
It's seems to have a very British sense of humour about it - I had a lot of fun making it and oddly it seems to feel right in ones hand.
I've named it "Spammer" (for a lack of a better title!) .....a compliment to any tool box perhaps?!
Manufactured from a recycled vintage ball pein hammer, a similarly old adjustable spanner and a hickory shaft, all crafted together and liberally waxed and oiled....enjoy!
It's seems to have a very British sense of humour about it - I had a lot of fun making it and oddly it seems to feel right in ones hand.
I've named it "Spammer" (for a lack of a better title!) .....a compliment to any tool box perhaps?!
Manufactured from a recycled vintage ball pein hammer, a similarly old adjustable spanner and a hickory shaft, all crafted together and liberally waxed and oiled....enjoy!
Open or shut
I love this....a wonderful example of
man at his most stupid and at his most ingenious….
Stupid for not
realising the incredibly complex lock was fitted to a somewhat weak door,
ingenious for the lateral thinking in by-passing it 😊
Photo courtesy of 28-days later
Another blessing.
....and then there was two....
...and so a change to the sculpture created 2 years ago, with a new egg to sit beside the first, again turned on a lathe in solid stainless steel, but by chance a slightly different shape, and both now sat on an oak plinth, all designed to represent that the 2nd child shall be treated the same, and yet despite this, become different to the first.
with sincere thanks as always to the "Man on the Lathe"
...and so a change to the sculpture created 2 years ago, with a new egg to sit beside the first, again turned on a lathe in solid stainless steel, but by chance a slightly different shape, and both now sat on an oak plinth, all designed to represent that the 2nd child shall be treated the same, and yet despite this, become different to the first.
with sincere thanks as always to the "Man on the Lathe"
The Ponderings of an Insomniac
"....it's funny how people can leave your life but stay in your dreams...."
Not long now...
A short thanks to all those who've helped of late.
What with moving house, the respective rebuilding of said house, new childcare arrangements and all the other challenges of life that are thrown in to entertain, things have been busy and chaotic.
However, there are sculptures in the pipeline once more, so with luck, we'll have some new pieces on here in the new year (or sooner) .....
What with moving house, the respective rebuilding of said house, new childcare arrangements and all the other challenges of life that are thrown in to entertain, things have been busy and chaotic.
However, there are sculptures in the pipeline once more, so with luck, we'll have some new pieces on here in the new year (or sooner) .....
Imprisoned
The struggle between the ties of life and the
draw of love can be a powerful one, and this sculpture represents
that struggle of being enchained by the course of life, by fate, and
once settled in that life, being unable to realise the true love when
found outside of that life.
Rather than unrequited, this love is
confined, restrained by the complexities of situation, it is alive
with power and depth of emotions within, but ultimately...in the end,
the love remains imprisoned...
As with the “Search” sculpture, the
heart is made from a solid billet of steel, hand sculpted to the form
of a heart that appears strangled and choked. Again, the
surface has been hammered over its entire surface to provide the
finish. The chain is a find from a barn in Wales, the tie a hand
forged band allowed to rust, and the base a piece of drift wood from a
beach on the south of England.
Strength in Simplicity
Simplicity in art brings with it an
immense strength, and the more powerful the subject matter of that art,
the more overwhelming it becomes in its simplest form....
(photo - Donald Kinney)
Here is a sculpture by George Segal - Holocaust Memorial
at California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco.
The holocaust subject matter deserves the utmost respect, and needs little further comment, what is striking is the way all the emotions are so intensely conveyed by such a simple piece.
Search
This piece portrays the difficulties of
finding true love, the endless, often fruitless search for the one
that unlocks the heart. The keys depict the relationships that did
not fulfil, the people that did not bring the love desired...and as
the heart continues the search, and life goes by, the heart remains
empty, un-fulfilled, lonely in a crowd...
The centre piece is made from a solid
billet of steel, sculpted by hand to shape the heart, and hammered
over its entire surface to give the warm, evocative surface finish.
The key escutcheon is pewter, riveted in place over the key hole.The
keys themselves come from many months of collecting, and waiting for
the elements to age them.
The End
The 3rd piece (earlier pieces being "Unrequited" and "Lost" ) in a long term series exploring the concept of love.
Love is often portrayed as the ultimate pleasure, a thing to strive for and cherish, yet in reality, it has a darkness and with that darkness come morose and sometimes threatening emotions as life plays out around it.
This piece depicts the shattering effect of the end, of the loved one walking away, the confirmation that the love is gone, and the devastating effect that has - the heart has lost all life, all the energy has gone - it is dust, it is dead.
The piece is constructed of a heart shape cut from a wood, which was then burnt in a fire and carefully laid on the background for capture - keeping the heart in one piece and preventing pieces blowing away was quite a challenge, although ironically, this too exactly reflects another aspect of what the piece is portraying.
Further pieces to follow explore the emotions of love further, with two more sculptures (in my more ususal medium of steel) due in the next few weeks - look out for them on the web site at www.haich.co.uk
Love is often portrayed as the ultimate pleasure, a thing to strive for and cherish, yet in reality, it has a darkness and with that darkness come morose and sometimes threatening emotions as life plays out around it.
This piece depicts the shattering effect of the end, of the loved one walking away, the confirmation that the love is gone, and the devastating effect that has - the heart has lost all life, all the energy has gone - it is dust, it is dead.
The piece is constructed of a heart shape cut from a wood, which was then burnt in a fire and carefully laid on the background for capture - keeping the heart in one piece and preventing pieces blowing away was quite a challenge, although ironically, this too exactly reflects another aspect of what the piece is portraying.
Further pieces to follow explore the emotions of love further, with two more sculptures (in my more ususal medium of steel) due in the next few weeks - look out for them on the web site at www.haich.co.uk
Nature in chains
Found today on a beach in North Wales,
here's some debris that struck me.
It's a piece of chain from the remnants
of a 19th century mining operation that has spent much of
its life in the jaws of the Irish Sea.
As is often the case, the forces of
nature have turned something quite mundane into something quite
beautiful, somehow adding to it rich colour renders and wonderful
textures.
The chain is now tightly wrapped and tied around itself, in one solid lump.
More poigniant perhaps is chains are almost a contronym, they are
loose, flexible devices, perfectly free in movement, yet in history
have been often used to confine, constrain and imprison – ironic
then that nature in this instance has had the ability to combine both
elements into this one beautiful piece.
Perfect Imperfection
This piece leads on from an earlier
blog focusing on the beauty of imperfection, and explores our opinion
as a race that any blemish is unpleasant and displeasing, and spoils
a perfect surface, especially true in context with the human body.
The base is manufactured from molten
iron, complete with inclusions, impurities and gas holes. The
“imperfection” itself is a smooth shiny stainless steel ball
bearing.
I have aimed to portray that both the
base of the piece and the focal point of the piece to be the exact
opposite of what we would normally expect them to be – the “skin”
is old, corroded and damaged, the “blemish” conversely is
perfect.
This latest sculpture is one I have
been aiming to create for some time, but until recently, the raw
material has proved somewhat elusive, despite many beach combing
excursions and trawls through scrap yards. However, found quite by
accident on a hill side in North Wales the base is a piece of melted cast
iron – according to the local land owner, it is the residue of a
significant fire some 50 years ago.
Art becomes art
Here is an advert by ArmaLite Inc (a hand gun manufacturer from the USA) that has been doing the rounds, creating mostly fury as it does so.
It pictures a AR50A1 bolt action long range rifle on a museum wall, sandwiched between the American Gothic and the Mona Lisa.
The gun is advertised as
"..Designed to be an economical answer for the challenges of long range shooting.."
...so killing people from far away very cheaply - clearly what the world needs.
And yet there it sits, in the presence of arguably two of the greatest pieces of art.
The advert has sparked criticism, especially from Italian culture minister, Dario Franceschini - whether rightly or wrongly (being opinionated on a public blog such as this is perhaps ill advised, so I shall refrain from commenting on the taste or otherwise of the advert)
What fascinates me though is the advert itself. Take away the text for the moment, and look just at the image and there are some very clever touches....which bring with them some intriguing questions...for example, why is the gun pointed at the Mona Lisa's head? (why that way around and not the other way around?) why is the viewer studying the piece a businessman (and not a militia) - it reminds me of the "the stereotypical faceless businessman" (The Son of Man by Rene Magritte portrayed in The Thomas Crown Affair) what expression is the man wearing - a smile? are there tears? contemplation? relief?
Being hung next to such masterpieces, one would assume then that the gun is in fact not for sale?...which perhaps is the most intriguing of them all, as it then belies the need for the advert in first place.
Engineering for engineerings' sake..
There seems to be a pre-determined generalism of the idiosyncrasies of many nations around the world, aided perhaps by history (it is the victors who write history after all) the movie industry and perhaps the exaggerations of the press over the years.
However, if you look, there are little wonderful details that only add to the myths regarding each nation, and add a wry humour to reputations...
Here we have a British 2nd World War paratrooper helmet, note the simple screw on the side to attach the liner and adjust the chin strap...
Here is the German equivalent...
Note the screw in the side....a normal screw? Far from it - for apparently no reason at all it is a special screw, that needs a special tool....beautifully engineered and packaged of course...
The bolt in my own Nut and Bolt sculpture is from a German Mauser, I had a choice of that one or one from a .303 Lee Enfield, but somehow the Mauser was more attractively engineered.
So perhaps the myth has some truth, Germans do like to excel at their engineering (clearly contrary to the myth they have a dry sense of humour too, what do you do if you lose the tool?)
I love it so much I've bought a tool (and I don't even own a helmet)....in this modern world of throw away plastic, there is something very comforting about engineering just for the sake of it, let's hope someone somewhere keeps doing it...
Photos courtesy of War Hats
However, if you look, there are little wonderful details that only add to the myths regarding each nation, and add a wry humour to reputations...
Here we have a British 2nd World War paratrooper helmet, note the simple screw on the side to attach the liner and adjust the chin strap...
Here is the German equivalent...
Note the screw in the side....a normal screw? Far from it - for apparently no reason at all it is a special screw, that needs a special tool....beautifully engineered and packaged of course...
So perhaps the myth has some truth, Germans do like to excel at their engineering (clearly contrary to the myth they have a dry sense of humour too, what do you do if you lose the tool?)
I love it so much I've bought a tool (and I don't even own a helmet)....in this modern world of throw away plastic, there is something very comforting about engineering just for the sake of it, let's hope someone somewhere keeps doing it...
Photos courtesy of War Hats
I'm an artist - get me out of here!
The first piece of 2014 has been in the offing for some time.
I have created a sculpture that for me at least demonstrates the frustrations an artist can encounter when one's head is full of ideas, yet these ideas just will not manifest themselves with the clarity needed to create the art that lives within...
...An artist will feed on the internal creativity that the soul creates, but also expands these ideas from other sources; healthy conversation, observations, media, humour, loss and most importantly, company. As these external elements ebb and flow in lifes' twisted path, so the art is consequently influenced.
Inspiration often comes from within, but the realisation, the clarity required to create the work, often relies on others....when they are gone, there is no purpose.....and it is they that hold the key.
I have created a sculpture that for me at least demonstrates the frustrations an artist can encounter when one's head is full of ideas, yet these ideas just will not manifest themselves with the clarity needed to create the art that lives within...
...An artist will feed on the internal creativity that the soul creates, but also expands these ideas from other sources; healthy conversation, observations, media, humour, loss and most importantly, company. As these external elements ebb and flow in lifes' twisted path, so the art is consequently influenced.
Inspiration often comes from within, but the realisation, the clarity required to create the work, often relies on others....when they are gone, there is no purpose.....and it is they that hold the key.
