This outline flows likes a ribbon, so curvaceous . It is a simply stunning piece. A beautiful start to a new collection of work entitled ‘Body Language’. It looks to me like a candy cane, you can imagine licking it and tasting different flavours depending on where your tongue touched.
‘Body Language’‘Body Language’‘Body Language’
The shadows created also provide images in themselves. To the untrained eye, perhaps the figures is not as easy to see in this piece as in the more geometric structures of his work. However, this piece combines both what has been my husbands preoccupation structurally with ‘outline’ and minimising the human form and the exploration of the philosophical questions of human essence and ideas of the body as a vessel.
‘Body Language’‘Body Language’
Stripping away at the content to make a sculptural outline of the figure, like a line drawing in three dimensions. This new work is about the abandoning of body and focusing purely on the line or edge of ourselves. Which leaves the subject as hollow. Man is essentially hollow. If we imagine that the body is a container, then it needs filling. We naturally search to fill the void, to find substitutes for that hollow space. The tragedy of the modern age is that we fill ourselves with everything that distracts us from where we need to look to find real satisfaction.
You can currently see this piece along with a number of other pieces at ‘Forsters’, City Park, Bradford, Yorkshire.
September started with sunshine and bountiful blackberry pickings. Whilst I was stood pulling berries of the branches, my hands were turning a deep purple from the juice and scratched from the prickly thorns, I likened the process to motherhood. Once you start you can’t stop, it’s a little painful and discomforting in the process but when the berries are plump and ready for the pick the fruits of the labour is well worth the effort.
With my youngest recently turning four and starting full-time school. I no longer have babies at home during the week. Their dependency on me is less and they are starting to face the world. I had a tinge of ‘have I done enough’ as I got him ready for his first day and I heard other mother’s discussing the same. I wondered why in this society we question whether we have done enough and feel guilt for not doing. In fact, my son came back after his first day and said “Mama lets snuggle because you haven’t seen me for a while”. This week will probably be the first time I have been apart from my children more than I have been with. I have spent the last 7 years in the role of ‘Mother’ and maybe there are things I could have done better or differently or done more of but I certainly couldn’t have spent any more time with them. For a while I thought this was a privilege, and in many ways it has been but it was primarily a choice which came with its own set of sacrifices.
This ‘Mother and Child’ piece is one of three sculptures in Art in the Park in Bradford. When we went to visit, my youngest sat cross-legged next to the child in a direct representation of the position. In many of my husband’s ‘Mother and Child’ pieces there is some kind of balancing act going on between the Mother and the Child, they are connected physically. In this the positioning of the child separated from the Mother and facing away is symbolic of the stage I am in at the moment. The Mother here is however curled around baby, still in an attempt to protect. Like the blackberry bush, a little unwilling to let go of the berries but when she does, marvelous things can happen. With our pickings I may add, we have made, crumble, pie, blackberry lemonade and smoothies! Nb. No babies were harmed in the process!
Perspective can be everything. In order to make myself see the positive I am starting with the highs of summer. At the beginning we had some glorious weather and plays in the park. We had good days out walking to waterfalls, scarecrow festivals and train journeys to a new city. We were together with family and friends. We played with Lego, had picnics and tumbled around. I had energy. The second half has seen a dip in my energy is levels and my patience has been none existent on some days mirrored by the weather with more overcast cloudy days rain. As the six-week school holidays draw to a close I berate myself for getting cross and now at the end I feel mournful of the times I clocked watched and marked off the days on the calendar in achievement. As I was reading a fellow bloggers entry to break from writing and gain inspiration I related to a similar idea about the idea of what we chose to let our memories focus on and how that can influences our thinking. I am therefore being mindful to focus on all the positive things I have done with my boys this summer at home.
‘Rhythm of The Bow’
The sculptor has been busy setting up his first solo exhibition and public art pieces in the park. Beautiful images were taken and it felt such a good achievement. Then we had another dip as despondency set in on discovering the outdoor pieces were getting ‘worn and torn’ much quicker than we anticipated because of people climbing and jumping on them. We debated whether they should be taken out, that the cost of upkeep was going to be too much. A few alterations made, they are there to stay but highlighted a need of education about art in public spaces but also the interest physically in the art. Bringing us back up we successfully sold five pieces in one fell swoop to one collector and so we are very excitedly putting plans in motion for a big trip to Egypt in December. A well-earned holiday, time with Egyptian family and something to look forward to for us all.
‘The Bow’
There are rainy days and sunny days and blessings in them both. There are highs and lows in life and wisdom in it all. Rhythm and flow occurs throughout our day, week, month and the whole year changes. In the midst of it we can appreciate those daily rhythms, depending on our perspective. Change can be welcome or sometimes unsettle us. There is a change in the air as summer ends, school starts and autumn approaches.
Section of ‘The Bow’
Something can be constant. We all have something which becomes our aim, what governs our lives and can sometimes dictate the way we focus our day. We all have something that structures the rhythm of our day. In effect what we submit too.
‘The Bow’ at Damside Mill In Haworth,below, see it next at Saltaire Arts Festival as part of the Sculpture Trail. September Sat 13 – Sun 14 2014 1.00pm to 4.30pm Free Entry.
The concept has so many levels to it. Entitled ‘The Bench’ it could be any combination of two people, sat for any number of reasons.
‘The Bench’ in front of the Mughal Gardens Lister Park
Bring to it what you will as a viewer.
Without going down to sad a route. I couldn’t help thinking of the Bill Withers song ‘Lean on me’: “Sometimes in our lives, We all have pain, We all have sorrow.” Feeling down or having low mood is something we can all relate to, all understand and all sympathise with. Clinical depression is something very different and there has been a lot of discussion over the last few days about it. “Depression is a real illness with real symptoms, and it’s not a sign of weakness or something you can “snap out of” by “pulling yourself together” NHS. Recent events remind us that no matter how rich or famous one is depression does not discriminate. We need to keep in mind that on a human level we can only hope to be there for people, to help, support, listen and care when they need it and when they think they don’t want it. To be there for someone as non-judgemental as possible and understand and accept people for who they are. It is the very essence of human nature to be a shoulder for someone or to have a shoulder to lean on.
It isn’t what this piece is about though, there can be so many different interpretations. The colours are so joyful and have a reason to them. But for now, so proud. This feels an amazing picture on so many levels. Mostly to have a sketch realised into a sculpture furthermore then to have it installed in a public place. This is a sculptors dream and now a reality. A real sense of achievement.
It has been a welcome break to be offline and unplugged for a month. However in today’s world I am not sure how possible it is to keep that up. We have evolved into an online society. So much has been happening in the ‘Sculptural World’ I am not sure I can catch up with what has past. So will have to run with real-time and tell you what is happening today and coming up this month. In all things Yorkshire, we have two solo exhibitions happening locally.
This evening we open at Damside Mill ‘Evolution’ an exhibition about the journey of work over the last 14 years. An interesting collection of work from the bronze beginnings to the recent modern minimalism. Join us tonight for the preview:
At the same time ‘Evolution’ the sculpture has moved from its first location outside ‘The Royal British Sculpture Society’ and now stands proudly in Lister Park awaiting the accompaniment of two other larger piece for ‘Art in the Park’. We are also getting ready for the exhibition ‘Only Human’ at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery which opens on August 13th and runs until February 2015. It seems serendipitous that I have been visiting this place since I was 10, worked there and last year our eldest son learnt to ride his bike in this exact spot. As a family we have been on a journey through this creative space. Would highly recommend a visit.
Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The Robert Frost poem ‘The road not taken’ has always been one of my favourites, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference could be an epithet of my husband’s and mine. It is starting to become clearer that the creative process is a journey. Not that we didn’t know that, but we are at point where we can reflect backwards and look forwards more. My husband’s work is truly evolving, progressing in a way which seems meant to be.
His work started in clay, because that was what we could afford and with space limitations, the scale we could manage. So his hands gave form to clay.
‘image from one of my very first blog entries of the making process’‘Early Clay work’‘Mother & Child’, example of the focus on outline
He always talked to me about his attempts to produce an outline. Distinctly remembering a co-student at university who was doing beautiful paintings but putting a black line around everything, when the tutor had commented that, that isn’t how we see things, the student replied back , it was how he saw things. Thus began my husband’s obsession with trying to create the black outline of a 3D object. Almost an annihilation of the body and form and a preoccupation of what makes it so. Theses paintings show the idea and the exploration of that a line gives.
Mother and Child painting‘Black outline with colour’
My own personal spiritual journey mirrors that of the sculptural journey, removing the focus on our body and form and seeking a deeper meaning and purpose to this life. So with the clay sculptures it was very much about the light and shadow and minimising the human form with curvature. With a little bit of expansion into wood, he developed a series of wooden forms with small figurines exploring the human condition but still looking at the idea of the outline that was being created. The more we strip away at our own personal desires and take away the superficial aims of money and materials, what are we here for?
‘Wood and figurine’
As a teenager my time working in a nursing home for the elderly gave me a stark reality that the time here is fleeting and that in old age we physically become a shadow of ourselves in youth. There must be a deeper meaning to it all. As we verge on the cusp of our spiritual retreat, precious days to focus on our hearts. Time to reassess, re-prioritize and recognize the most important things in our lives. To understand what we are doing here. “Where, then, are you going?”
‘at a crossroads’
With the meeting of a steel fabricator there was movement into a new medium, enabling the shape of the human figure to be minimised more. In almost a fusion of the clay work and the wooden work a new series was created. The light and shadow create the outline in much of this pyramidal and obelisk work.
‘Steel minimisation of the human form’
The addition of colour became a uniting tool for the journey of sculptures and enabled another layer of meaning to be visual presented. Emotions and ideas, the sculptures now in a state of consciously making us ask questions.
‘Family Tree’
‘Souls’ became the laconic title of the next body of work but in this case the souls of sculptures compressed into the minimal form. If our human body is like the clay then the soul is a distinct other entity within the human framework and has three states of existence, base desire, that which our bodies need to survive, secondly the soul in a state of consciousness when we start questioning and discerning and a final stage where one is at peace and rest. The purification and development from the first to the third is a life long pursuit. A wrestling between each stage, a honing and a shaping of our inner reality.
‘Evolution’ maquette and final piece
Stripping the figure right down to its most minimalistic form resulted in the ‘Evolution’ both in the title of this piece and the progression into a new theme of work. In keeping with the philosophy of our bodies being merely a vessel for the energy that makes us. What are we without our bodies. Taking away the matter, the material and focusing on what gives us shape.
‘Wedding Dress’ combination of minimal form and mannequin parts
The college effect of using steel and mannequin parts also another part of the journey that came about from the idea of mixing both realism and minimalism together. It can sometimes be a struggle, living in day-to-day reality whilst maintaining a connection with an unseen reality but the reward is endless.
‘The Smoker’ became a turning point for a new idea. Using car exhaust parts to form an idea, an outline.
‘smoker’
In nature there is no outline, all that is created is seen by what appears in front or behind. What is the reality of what we are seeing? We only see an edge because of the layers of things. So the line of the house I see outside the window is only visible because of the clouds behind it. In these images of new work not yet finished (so a sneak preview) the beginning of a new stage in the development of the sculptural journey can be seen. A new material enabled an exploration of ideas, in full circle a return to the initial curvature and idea of line . It redefines or explores further the idea of the outline, taking it to the next level in abandoning the matter within completely and focusing purely on the edge.
‘Sketch and parts’‘Sketch and Line’
This reflects the spiritual journey of focusing on our true self, the ethereal essence within us which ultimately outlasts the earthen vessel carrying us throughout this realm of our existence and onto the next. It is certainly a way of seeing the world, both as a sculptor and following a spiritual path, a gift I am eternally grateful for. In a fitting completion to this entry yesterday the sculptor discovered a new dimension to this new work which symbolically connects the two, but I shall leave that to write about once the sculpture is complete and our spiritual retreat which we are about to embark on has ended.
‘Body Movement’‘Body Movement I’ outside casting a shadow
I don’t know if ‘Ego, I go, grammar goes’ makes any sense, but as a title it sounded good to me. Spelling and grammar have never been my strong point. Perhaps I just keep telling myself that in order to remain lazy and nonchalant about it. Methodological thinking is not how my brain seems to work. I need to start making a conscious attempt to self correct and proof read a little more. It annoys me when I see, ‘you’re’ and ‘your’ and ‘their’ and ‘there’ misused. So it’s quite worrying that I myself am doing it. There is obviously, therefore a handful of readers browsing my posts and pulling the grimace on their faces that I sometimes do. I guess it is a lesson in placing judgment. We should never judge others or criticise others of behaviours or actions when we ourselves are not perfect. “When we think we’re perfect, we expect perfection from others. When we start to recognize our own weaknesses, we begin to be more forgiving of the weaknesses in others”. Yasmin Mogahed. So I apologies for my grammatical mistakes and that the grammar goes.. out of the window sometimes in my writing.
So in keeping with bad grammar…’I go’ everywhere yesterday looking for a magazine. Supermarkets, newsagent, shops and none of them have it. I then had an idea of going into a coffee shop and seeing if they have a copy. They have a stack and kindly give me three. As I walk back to the car flicking through it, I can’t find what I am looking for. I look back at the front cover. June 2014. It is June but perhaps I am needing the July issue. I give up and return home. All of this because that morning I bumped into a friend who tells me what really good coverage and images of my husband’s work. I am not sure what she is talking about and then she explains he is in a local magazine. At home, I casually tell my husband over brunch forgetting the ‘artist ego’ and so then he phones a friend to find out where we can get a copy, texts the photographer who writes back “it’s really good, I’ll drop a copy to you this week”. “This week” the sculptor can’t wait a moment longer. So I offer, I must make clear and I go on a hunt even though for me I only half understand the urgency. The artist ego has fully kicked in. “Ego might seem self centred but artists and writers need buoyant egos to go on working” Elizabeth Baines.
I wrote the above this morning whilst my husband stood outside our business and two ladies boldly walked past with a ream of magazines distributing them to local business. I then had to wait until this evening to see it and read it. Entitled “Body Art, a West Yorkshire sculptor is making a name for himself with head-turning works”.It’s an amazing three page spread with great images and lots of details and promotion. Even with a strip line on the front cover “Man of Steel” talk about massaging the ego and reinforcing the boys opinion of Baba! A few facts not quite right but ultimately a great piece. It even gives this site a little promotion, “Sam is married to a writer, who he says is “wholly supportive of my work” Her lively blog ‘The Sculptor’s Wife’ shares news about his work, as well as family life with Sam and their two sons”. In reading that it definitely buoyed up my ego though seeing the words ‘married to a writer” in black and white print feels a bit fraudulent. At what point do you become a writer? Can a writer own up to having have bad grammar? So, perhaps the ‘Ego’ is not a bad thing. Bad grammar, maybe.
I thought it was a bit ironic that the local paper had chosen this image alongside the strap line “Artists create work inspired by Tour”. When what immediately comes to mind is ‘A smoker’, meaning a person who partakes in smoking, and not probably partaking in riding around the dales on a bike, (or maybe some are I maybe being presumptuous).
This is a piece which is growing on me, as the more I discover about it and the more I have to think about it in order to write; the more I understand the philosophy behind it. This is how it should be with art and life. Sometimes it makes sense, it appears to us clearly and we can go ‘yeah I get that’ other times it is more of a struggle we don’t understand or only later on does something reveal it’s deeper hidden meaning.
This piece is one solid colour rather than the usual mix of colours and so for me it is harder to connect with. ‘I just see red’ which is actually is why it is all red. So what is this piece about…the medium for this sculpture is a ‘collage’ of exhaust pipes and mannequin parts. This in itself highlighting the very issue the piece is speaking about. Those moments in life when we feel disappointment, frustration,and we can’t express it. Those moments when you get on your bike and ride around the dales to let off steam! Perhaps, indeed their is a link between this piece and riding your bike after all.
The modern world is gradually pushing us into a trap of not being able to say what we really mean or what we want. We live in a ‘democracy’ where ‘freedom of speech’ is apparently a tool for us all. Yet we are pushed by media and consumerism to think , act and behave in a certain way. We can’t always say for fear off being misunderstood, offending others, not being politically correct. For some people the toll of being on this treadmill makes them ‘fume’. The verb ‘Fume’ means both ‘to emit gas, vapour or smoke’ and also to feel, express or show anger, coming from the Latin fumare ‘to smoke’. ‘The smoker’ is currently in a Saatchi online competition ,having being selected from 4,000 artists it is now in the top 30 semi final. I will leave you with the images to have a think about it for yourself…..
Very exciting to read a first review following a successful first northern solo exhibition. So interesting to read someone else writing about the work. So happy the pieces were understood and the concept achieved its aim. Let’s hope it is the start of many. Find the link below and words from it underneath
Sam Shendi, whose current show Souls is residing at the FYC gallery as part of the Venn Projects curatorial steering, is a mass of contradictions. The contradictory aspect of the show is in fact is a key to its success.
The bright and, at first viewing, superficial work is in fact full of depth and the directness of the primary colours have a resonance beyond their initial impact. A series of compacted metal may be a mundane media yet it has an allure beyond its material.
The award winning sculptor, Shendi, creates in Souls a series of oblong sculptures from crushed metal which are then painted vivid eye-blasting colours. It’s a very attractive series of work on a purely visual level, but it is when one spends a little time with the sculptures that the real strength of the works surface.
Within the formal setting of the FYC’s white cube gallery space Shendi’s works offer a reflective experience that once entered into allows the inner tales of the sculptures to speak. The harsh lines and jagged metal cube-like shapes start to morph into forms within the folds of the work. Light which shines off the hard gloss finish alter the sculptures into masses of faces; the first thing the human mind tries to form from any unresolved shapes. It’s an arresting experience to see these faces appear. Our brains fill in the gaps and create these ‘souls’ that the show seeks to explore.
The use of colour is very particular in the work, as primal responses to the garish tones augment our experience. With the meditative approach that Shendi hopes we will use to view the work, comes an inner interaction as we are drawn to the ever-shifting forms.
We are almost as important as the work with our part of the viewing. This is true of course of most art, the viewer gets as much as they put into the work, but Shendi’s work has an immediacy that almost drags the eye into and around the pieces.
It’s an assured collection of work that speaks of the confidence of both the artist’s message and his faith in his work. It is this confidence which gives you an innate understanding of your place in the exchange of viewer and object/art. You will almost automatically take your time to view and interact with the work. It’s a must see and a great success for the FYC.
The symbolism and history of Troy is immense, the Trojan horse, not only as great tactic of war and deception but a pivotal moment in ethics of morality. Simon Armitage considers “how we are locked in the same cycles of conflict and revenge, of east versus west, and the same mixture of pride, lies and self-deception that fed the Trojan War”. In the moral world of the Greeks, revenge was the way to go and there was great honour in that. Now in modern or perhaps western understanding there is a shift because of the way society is organised and social needs , the way we think of ourselves as human has changed. Perhaps we believe that the shift from vengeance to justice and forgiveness much greater in the moral compass. In many ways we fool ourselves into a deception of thinking how we would react, if a situation would arise that provoked us would be vengeful?
I felt I needed to research a little bit before writing about this piece but consequently it is harder to finish. It has taken a bit more working out. Having studied Classics at A level, the subject is not too foreign however, my memory appalling. In its own twist of fate I happened to listen to a ‘Start the Week’ episode on Radio 4 about Greek Tragedy and it would appear that with the memorial of world war one this year there is a harbouring back to the past about war and tragedy. Perhaps I am scrambling up all that was discussed in the programme and not coming out with much sense but it highlighted to me again the idea of the subconscious interconnection of ideas between artists. In this case there is definately a lot focus on Greek history this month. So in a good arts and culture plug: The Last Days of Troy is on at the Royal Exchange, Manchester from 8 May – 7 June and then at Shakespeare’s Globe, London from 10 – 28 June. Thebans, with words by Frank McGuinness and composed by Julian Anderson, is at the London Coliseum until 3 June. The writer Kenan Malik’s book ‘The Quest for a Moral compass’ is also out this month and in discussion at the Hay Festival this weekend (30 th May).
In a more rural setting, in a small village a sculpture stands in a studio. This epic piece took its own journey of making ( as you can see from the images in the entry ‘Space to play, place to work’) From a block of polystyrene the craftmanship of this is paramount to those Greek and Roman sculptors of past.
‘Troy’‘Troy’
It is a contemporary recreation of an idea that fascinates my husband. The horse itself as an animal a majestic creature and the idea that sculptors, craftsmen, creators have been making things for centuries. This work may seem very different in style from recent works which have been more minimal more geometric such as the ‘Souls’ pieces.
There is the link of colour but there is also the link of ‘Soul’. For me ‘Troy’ is not just the idea of a tactic of war and of armies or military power. It is the shift from the outward reality to the internal. The human condition internalized. We may not personally seek vengeance on the gods as in Greek history but we analyse and over analyse our behaviour our minds. However, like the horse on the outside, impressive, beautiful and an object of admiration, inside destruction is about to manifest. So, today are we, on the individual level, all about making an external impression, beautifying ourself and showing off our achievements. Objectifing and materializing. We forget our integrity and what is hiding within. Our own internal beauty gets lost and so where is our ‘Soul’.
THE SCULPTOR'S WIFE 