Past Exhibitions and Projects 2007 ‘HIRAETH – Sculpture from Wales’ 2007 Touring Exhibition to The European Academy of Otzenhausen in Nonnweiler, Germany, The Gallery, Alan Baxter and Associates, London and The Town Library Gallery, Barry, Wales. The members of Sculpture Cymru are constantly exploring new ways of working together and new possibilities for the engagement of sculptors in projects that expand their practice and contribute to the general awareness and enjoyment of sculpture. Hiraeth, an initiative led by John Howes, previous Chair of Sculpture Cymru, is one such project that takes the sculpture of this country out of Wales to Europe and London. Individual members, such as Peter Boyd and Andrew Griffiths have already contributed to exhibitions and residencies at the venues of this touring exhibition and paved the way for the present project. Sculpture Cymru is grateful for the support of the Arts Council of Wales Dilys Jackson Chair person: Sculpture Cymru May 2007
Introduction
- Robert HardingFor this Sculpture Cymru exhibition, I selected a range of work that encompassed modelling, carving, casting and construction – all the main disciplines of object-based sculpture. Sculpture Cymru, as a group of artists with a regular exhibition programme, tends to be primarily engaged in this endeavour rather than the more conceptual or installation-based practice. Indeed, some might regard the making of objects as fundamental to human nature: I have yet to meet one conceptual sculpture student who was not initially lured into three/four dimensions by the process of making things by hand. Hiraeth is an evocative title. I am a product of the dislocation caused by the industrial revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries; so, my family has not stayed in one place long enough for a geographical location to evoke hiraeth. Rather, my understanding of hiraeth focuses on feelings for particular objects, materials and methods of work, and memories of special times and family stories. Such associations are sometimes echoed in the statements and work of the Sculpture Cymru members. For example, some artists investigated particular objects (Griffiths, Hayward, Howes: and that their chosen objects all have associations with physical work), others investigated memories of particular or imagined spaces (Tombs, Butler, Spowers, Jackson, Flewitt) while some investigated memories of particular feelings (Johnson, Lochhead, Goodfellow). The processes of sculpture have metamorphosed these starting points. The mix of memory and sculptural process always leads to imaginative hybridisations, so that even the most straightforward memory of a particular ‘horsey moment’ in Susan Hayward’s work transforms itself through clay into a ‘landscape of the mind’ from which the moment was remembered. Some artists are more analytical (Howes & Butler) than others. Some are more primitive and germinal (Jackson & Flewitt). Such diversity is to be expected from a group that covers a large geographical area, numerous sculptural disciplines and more than one generation. Hiraeth also evokes nostalgia – and for some of these artists childhood is present in the work but hidden. For example, the needles in one of Andrew Griffiths’ collages are those used by his late father to make wigs, hence the play on the title Heir. This, of course, is privileged information. Wales is a small country and those few members of Sculpture Cymru who are not ex-students or I have not taught with or exhibited alongside in the past, I know by reputation. Indeed, I have probably lost a few friends in making this selection, but selection is a necessary evil if the work presented for exhibition is to have coherence. Hopefully, the hanging of the exhibition will also enable other useful cross-comparisons to be made; the selection of work is only the first tool to be deployed in mounting a successful exhibition. Robert Harding has been a professional sculptor and lecturer in Wales since 1982
Hiraeth, the known or the lost - Shelagah Hourahane Hiraeth is a word that is bandied around with an extraordinary abandon; it has been taken up as one of the signifiers that Welsh people have a particular, even a unique sense of their land and their relationship to it. This uniqueness comes from the claim that hiraeth cannot be properly translated into English. Because of this, the notion of hiraeth has been high jacked by the world of spin and marketing. In the currently running competition to design a series of landmark sculptures that will proclaim entry into Wales, the organisers have evoked the idea of 'hiraeth' as part of the brief. The sculptures will be placed at key entry points into Wales and the intention is that they will, like Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North, become iconic images that signify Welshness. In this context hiraeth would be a gut stirring feeling of recognition that one has arrived, or left, this special place. Competing sculptors from around the world have been prodded into conjuring images suggestive of dragons and their eggs, of a fluctuating form evoking an abstraction of the Welsh language, of mythical associations with colours and of the profile of the mountain landscape. In another, but related world, the Wales Tourist Board, now Visit Wales, created an initiative called ‘Homecoming 2000 – Hiraeth 2000’. This is Tom Jones land, the ‘green green grass of home’ and its target is the Welsh of the diaspora. The millennium was seen as an ideal point to play on the sense of nostalgia that drives many people to return to Wales and which inspires various artists to regularly reassert their roots. If the notion conveyed by the word ‘hiraeth’ has more to offer contemporary artists than I have suggested above, we may need to look to the origins of modern sculpture and especially to the case of Brancusi. The legendary journey that Brancusi made from his native Romania to Paris was to provide a perfect example of the artist who left his homeland to become a part of the irresistible advance of modernity. His subsequent work was to pioneer formal and conceptual innovations that changed sculpture and are still fundamental for many three dimensional artists. However, Brancusi continued to have one foot in his homeland and its traditional practices and imagery. In his classic study of early modern sculpture Albert E. Elsen (1973) referred to Brancusi’s Prodigal Son 1915 as to that date the sculptor’s work that was “…most complex in form and inscrutable in theme. To see or imagine this sculpture as a kneeling figure wearing a knapsack, head thrust forward, may require wit…but it also requires faith and intuition…It may be relevant to know that the sculptor travelled with a knapsack and that he returned to his fatherland in 1914 after a five year absence. The Prodigal Son may have been a metaphorical self portrait.” Hiraeth may then be linked with nostalgia and with homecoming. But for the artist it must be more than a sense of place, another of our present day hackneyed phrases that attempts to locate a world that is personal and meaningful. It should also be connected to a sense of loss that is beyond the physical and the legendary. In searching for the artistic tradition that best seeks out the elusive and nebulous sense of hiraeth, I would like to point to the metaphysical. Metaphysical art positions the human being in a space that eludes definition and suggests endless journeying through complex places and time. If hiraeth is an emotional experience that is indefinable it must also refer to something that is unattainable, that is similar to metaphysical space. Sculpture that is metaphysical reinvents the world of objects so that the ordinary appears amazing or displaced. Everything that would be familiar will appear distanced. Such objects may be a part of a memory that is not even linked with our own experience but instead with that of a collective self. In this context, Sociology also grapples with our notion of hiraeth in the form of nostalgia that “…connects natural biography and personal self-fashioning in the 21st century” (Boym, S. 2001). Like Brancusi each sculptor makes work that is a part of the their biography but may also seek to escape into the modernist world of emancipated form. The artists from Wales who are placing their work beneath the nominal banner of Hiraeth are engaging with a complex idea. It may take them down a road that links with recognisable tradition, stories and landscapes or it may open up an exploration of dispossession and separation. We have this Welsh word that usually conjures a landscape of mountains, lakes, rivers, poetry and music but we can lend it to the world and let it be a part of a any journey in the discovery of self. Shelagah Hourahane ‘Pioneers of Modern Sculpture’. Elsen, A.E. 1973. London. Arts Council of Great Britain. ‘The Future of Nostalgia’.
Boym. 2001. S. Basic Books.
Shelagh Hourahane is a free-lance writer, researcher, artist and lecturer.
2006
RESIDENTIAL
IRON CASTING WORKSHOP For some time Scultpure Cymru had been discussing the idea of developing Training workshops where members could come together to develop new skills in sculptural practice. The recent interest in the development of using cast iron, as a way of making sculpture was beginning to become established and it was proposed that we should organise a residential course for members. There is some considerable expertise in South Wales in this process - Harvey Hood at his Berllanderri workshops had been running a number of workshops and member, Matthew Tomalin had gained much acclaim for his work at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 2005. In addition, Andy Griffiths, from the West Wales School of Art and Design had been responsible, with support from the sculpture team, in building a cast iron cupola capable of pouring iron as a sculptural material, and the College became the obvious venue for our Workshop. We were successful in obtaining a grant from the Arts Council of Wales to fund ten members to attend the weeklong residential course. Those who attended gave illustrated talks about their work at the hostel in the evening and the whole event culminated in an exhibition of work in the Henry Thomas Gallery. This Project was one of the most successful in terms of bringing Sculpture Cymru members together to make-work, share and discuss ideas. All members gained new skills and created pieces of sculpture. One member is already using cast iron as a medium for a piece of public sculpture and another has applied for a grant to pursue his or her own sculptural practice through this new casting techniques. With support from The Arts Council of Wales, West Wales School of the Arts
First experiences of an Iron Caster. I had been looking forward to this course from its very first appearance on the Sculpture Cymru agenda. What a brilliant idea of Andy Griffiths to hold the first ever iron casting residential week course at The West Wales School of the Arts, Carmarthen. This was certainly one of its kind, where else in Wales or indeed the UK offer unique workshop facilities such as this. I felt privileged to be included and funded but also appreciated the luxury of a weeks dedicated headspace to think of nothing other than producing experimental sculpture in a new medium. The were 15 Artists in total; 10 members of Sculpture Cymru,
3 local artists, one from Devon and 1 from London. From the very
first minute the group were made welcome and the atmosphere was
electric, this played a huge part in the continued group dynamic
that was crucial to the actual iron pour course. We worked each
day from 9 am till the caretaker rattled his keys at chucking
out time 8pm. Andy Griffiths was an excellent tutor; nothing seemed to faze him and together with the additional input from Mathew Tomalin who has experience in iron casting made an inspirational team. The workshop assistants where very much appreciated, they were always-on hand with practical technical expertise and their considerate and very professional manner was an asset. I usually work with molten metal but I had no previous experience of working with iron. This didn’t matter as only 1 or 2 of the entire class were familiar with this medium. What did matter was our willingness to learn, experiment and come together as a group. We had all come from varied creative backgrounds and academic achievements but where now all in the same boat. My own personal aim was to work with the molten iron as I do aluminium, pouring it from a ladle straight from the crucible onto a sand bed to create a free flowing sketch and I also wanted to cast a personalised ingot mould tray. The group had diverse and interesting ideas ranging from coin making, traditional shovel/spade heads, intricate sculptural forms, precise bowls it was a real mix between the practical, simple elegance and the down right elaborate. The week took us through the processes of making a wooden sand box frame, batch making CO2 sand with sodium silicate, preparing the masters, filling and gassing the prepared sand boxes. Wednesday was recorded to be the hottest day of the year and we all broke 2.5 stone of iron to a very specific size and a bag of coke each using heavy mallets. Thursday was the day of the pour, the large-scale copula was made on site, and we all stood in admiration at this wonderful contraption that was put together by our very own sculpture staff. By 2pm all was ready, laid out before us was an astonishing procession of expectant moulds all eager to be filled. The casting clan was assembled, teams assigned and with the excitement mounting we knew that once this fiery process began absolutely nothing could interrupt the continuous flow it or get in its way. Once the molten iron reached a temperature of 1700 degrees Celsius the cement plug was broken allowing the molten iron to gush, we all cried out ‘There’s Lovely’ for luck. There were 13 continuous pours; 1200 lb of metal was used to fill over 30 moulds. I experienced what seemed like a primal fascination just mesmerised
watching this molten goodness gush from the copula; it certainly
was spectacular. A breath-taking phenomenon, I felt proud to
be part of the team effort to achieve such a feet. The exhibition two weeks later was the icing on the cake; it was just wonderful not only to see the whole groups finished work and to reminisce over the collected images but also to reconnect with the crew out of our overalls and glammed up for the occasion with a glass of wine in our hands. Everything in my agenda was more than achieved, the only problem being that it led to many more questions about durability, which I don’t perceive as a problem, just an artist’s way of developing. I was surprised and little disappointed to discover just how brittle the iron was. Now I need to learn how to compensate for this. I really look forward to the next time I get an opportunity to work in iron again. In an ideal work I would love to produce a series of pieces that would allow for further experimentation. I envisage the need for lots of test pieces using various carbon and steel ratios as additional ingredients, in the hope to make the iron behave how I want it to thus allowing for more expressive freedom. This course for me was a tantalizing teaser. “Please sir, can I have some more”! Sonya Dawn Flewitt
2006
THE FUTURE PAST: SCULPTURE FROM WALES,
IRELAND & BRITTANY
2005 CROSSING
OVER: SCULPTURE FROM WALES AND IRELAND Crossing Over united the work of Welsh and Irish based sculptors Antonia Spowers, John Howes, Dilys Jackson and Paul Kincaid, Ben Reilly Pat Cunningham, Antonia Splini and John O’Connor. The exhibition was so titled in order to highlight the vitality of the cultural partnership that the ARTSWAVE partnership creates. Diversity of style was integral to the exhibition and yet all of the artists involved united in a common respect for the cultural heritage from which their art emanates. Caitlin Doherty, Project Director, Artswave Ireland With support from Artswave, The Arts Council of Wales, Ceredigion Museum
2004
Please
Click the image to download a PDF of our booklet (13.7Mb) SCULPTUREWORKS Sculptureworks became the first major event to be organized by Sculpture Cymru in Wales. Not only did it give members the opportunity to exhibit and make work in a variety of media, scale and format in the magnificent setting of Margam Park, but it also helped to raise the profile significantly of the group within Wales. In this project, we invited Beatriz Carbonell Ferrer from Catalonia, Constantina Iconomopulos from Argentina and Elsie Wood from the USA to work alongside us in the Park. With support from Swansea Institute of Higher Education, Visiting Arts, Colegsirgar, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, The Arts Council of Wales
2004
ARTSWAVE Sculpture Cymru presented an exhibition of small works and John Howes gave an illustrated talk about the formation of the Group and its future development to an audience of writers, musicians and artists drawn from West Wales and Ireland. Myles Pepper, Project Director, Artswave Ireland
2004
ARC INTERNACIONAL D’ESCULTURA Associacio D’Escultors De Catalunya With support from Wales Arts International, Egarfrio, egARTrans, Ajuntament de Terrassa, ct caixaterrassa, Sculpteurs Bretagne
2003
AMALGAM:
SCULPTURE FROM WALES AND BRITTANY
2002
CELTIC
EXCHANGES: SCULPTURE FROM BRITTANY AND WALES
2001
CELTIC
EXCHANGE: SCULPTURE FROM BRITTANY AND WALES With support from Brittany Ferries, artcymru, Sculpteurs Bretagne, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council
2000
CELTIC
EXCHANGE: SCULPTURE FROM BRITTANY The President of Sculpteurs Bretagne, Francois Hameury brought over sculpture from Brittany for exhibition in Caernarfon, and Breton sculptors, Maurice Le Meur and Pascal Suet presented a similar show in Pontardawe. With support from Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council
2000
RUPTURES Landivisiau, Brittany Sculpture Cymru was formed in 2000 in response to the Association
of Sculpteurs Bretagne’s wish to create exchanges with
artists in Wales. Since this date, Members have shown regularly at Sculpteurs Bretagne’s Salon De Sculpture in Landivisiau. 2006
HORS CADRE
TENDRE & BESTIAL
UN RIEN DE FOLIE
AUJOUD’HUI ET DEMAIN? Sculpteurs Bretagne
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