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 19^th 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.

Man, nature and things on a beach

There is in me an underlying conviction that despite our best efforts to create artistic pieces of beauty, hours of work, study, thought and passion, nature will pop along and quietly trump us with a serene ease.

..to add some ammunition to the argument, here’s an item I picked up a beach in Wales…

 

It was once I think part of a bed head, although it immediately struck me as Aladdin’s lamp, with jewels over the body and a spout. Either way, nature has made a piece of human rubbish into a jewelled and beautiful object, oozing with colour, texture and light

On a different note, it’s so fragile that as it’s drying out it’s falling apart, in effect once withdrawn from nature it’s slowly dying, much the same as ourselves, the more disjointed from nature we become as a species, the less of a coherent species we become, which brings me on to a piece I’d love to do….

 

…it’s a series of a cast iron man, slowly emerging out of the ground, until finally he is completely separated from the earth, with the final man having fallen…..demonstrating that once mankind has become completely detached from nature, we will cease to be alive.

Love and Time

Here's a little piece I made recently, titled “Eternal”

It defines love and time, how, as everything else ages and changes around it, love itself doesn't alter, it remains as bright, strong and vivid as it did when conceived.

The piece is made in two parts, the stem is a piece of iron, found on a beach after a storm. It's corroded, heavily worn and slowly degrading – left outside as it is, it will eventuality disappear. This is life, ever changing, wearing us with age, changing us as each day passes. The heart, conversely, is hand forged from solid stainless steel, a material renowned for it's corrosive resistance, it's ability to withstand the forces of nature and its environment. This is love, never degrading, never weakened by life around it, continual.

It's quite simplistic, but none the less I quite like it. It speaks of the essence that is love. I have spoken in previous posts how hard it can be to draw emotion out into a sculpture, however, love is not an emotion, it's deeper than that, more like a state of being I think. Rather than try and portray this depth, the strength of feeling, the pain and the raw power, I've gone along an opposing path, depicting love in it's most simple transparent form.

Generally, a sculpture portrays it's meaning from its form, it's shape, texture and often it's placement – the material will of course have a bearing, but less so.

In this piece it's the materials more than the form that give it it's meaning – I'm not sure this is a common concept in sculpture, but it's one I think I would like to explore further.

"Eternal" can be seen on the website in the near future.