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Contemporary art for the garden
6 May - 4 September 2010
This show features three artists whose work is primarily viewed outside the walls of the
gallery. By bringing theses artists together flow enables the viewer to experience
magnificent sculptures in a surprising and original way, bringing the outside in.
Although primarily a letter cutter of stone and wood, Gary Breeze uses a range of
materials. He recently completed a fountain in cast lead which adorns the cloister at
Christ Church in Oxford. Established in 1993 Gary quickly gained a reputation, not just
for technically accomplished lettering and robust design but for creating beautiful and
thought provoking work. The artist, Edmund De Waal describes him “as an
ethnographer as much as a carver.… His work is immersed in the particularities of
words and voice and culture. He restores language to us through his lettering.”
For the past fifteen years Alison Crowther has lovingly carved furniture and sculpture
from huge sections of unseasoned English oak. The forms, inspired by the landscape
surrounding her workshop in the South Downs are simple and organic but richly
textured with a surface of hand-carved grooves and lines that echo the natural rhythms
of the timber itself. Her functional sculptures are usually intended for the garden but
more recently she has been working on a number of commissions for large corporate
atriums and lobbies.
Sue Halls` new body of work for the garden marks the beginning of a new
development in her sculpture, one which explores the idea of an outsized
domestic animal in a garden or wild setting. Some creatures lend
themselves perfectly to this magnification process – the rabbit was an
undoubted first choice. The image is benign, even pastoral yet the enlarging
brings a sense of menace and impending danger. There is much to be
exploited in this juxtaposition of imagery. Working on large scale terra cotta
allows her to indulge her interest in gardens and landscape. It also makes a direct connection to the rich history of figurative garden ornament, a genre
she has long been interested in and one which is in great need of
contemporary interpretation.
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