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History Tree
McMillan Park, Deptford
2010
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I
work within a modernist sensibility, carving wood, stone and modelling
clay. I acknowledge the history of sculpture and draw inspiration
from it. My ideas are figurative. I try to manifest the physical in
the stone, create an illusion of a dynamic surface that is suggestive.
The subject may also include a concept such as history, archaeology,
distant culture or another world even.
My sculptures are labour
intesive they are dependent on their visual and tactile qualities,
they are haptice, informed by touch and informing by touch.
In 2010 I completed two
wood carvings for Margaret McMillan Park in Deptford, commissioned
by Lewisham Council. I also completed a play area of wood carved
benches for Warwick Gardens, commissioned by Southwark Council.
In March 2007 I completed
and sited three large woodcarvings (3 meters high), in a new public
garden in Lewisham, Cornmill Gardens. All three were carved from
trees that had been cleared from the site. Each carving is based
on one of the watermills that once occupied the site, the river
Ravensbourn cuts through the Gardens. Lewisham Council commissioned
the sculptures.
One other commission
I was involved with in 2007 was a relief carving in Black Marble,
based on a chapter from a poem called Little Rabbit by Luo Ying,
'Last Man', 1 meter x 2.5 meters.
Commissioned by the Zhongkun Investment group, Beijing China. The
relief will be sited in a new gallery in Beijing.
I have taken part in
several exhibitions this year. The relief sculpture Victims, 2006,
Painted Plaster, 50 x 45 cm. was exhibited at the Foundary Gallery
on Old Street, Shoreditch. The relief was based on current news
paper images of the War in Iraq I did a whole series of plaster
sculptures based on news images, in this one I include a surreal
element in an attempt to convey the horror.
Dark Ship I exhibited
at the APT gallery in the exhibition Bounty, 'my carving Dark Ship
attempts to show the shadow side of the voyage of the Bounty, the
stone is dark but also reflective, looking back at events 200 years
since the abolition of the Trans- Atlantic slave trade.'
The sculpture Mars, 2004,
is part of a series based on the planets.
Royal Arsenal Gardens Woolwich. 2002. I carved five granite carvings
based on local history. Iron, bronze and gold, is an example of
one.
Some previous public
commissions include; Alcatel Ferry steps, at Enderby Wharf, Greenwich.
2001. I replaced and carved new steps based on local history.
www.lawrencesculptor.co.uk
Email: r.law.rence@virgin.net
© Richard Lawrence
2010
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