This is the latest in the Temporary Sculpture series. It is a response to a short stretch of coastline which has inspired my visual and literary practice. Here the stone which suggests a human profile was found and which stares out from the top of this mast. The base of the work is a direct reference to boat builders and the sea. It also suggests the cardinal points of the compass. The blackboard and monoprint collage offer entries into other worlds.
Details of “The Last of ……….” 2011, Temporary Sculpture 2, Mixed Media.
“The concept of a “temporary” sculpture marks a return to the Hepworth (1976) installation at the Robert Self Gallery in Newcastle and the subsequent tableaus and three-dimensional works which followed and continued until moving to Barbados in 1979. ………..
………Although working in relief and three-dimensions have only produced a few works, they have often marked a significant development in my work. Te Amo (1983), the 1993 Advent Mask series, Materia Prima and Elements of 1999 are all such markers in my oeuvre. In 2008 Aus den sieben Tagen was a parallel work to Leaning Column [Temporary Sculpture 1] although it was completed earlier.” Excerpts from 2008 catalogue “Whittle in Context”.
Leaning Column, 2008 can be seen on the posting of 20 July 2010.
Photography, William St James Cummins
The Last of …………….. (temporary sculpture 2) 2011
I grew up in Birmingham, England and attended the Moseley Road School of Art from 11 to 18 years of age. We often frequented the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the painting “The Last of England” by Ford Maddox Brown made a significant impression.
“In 2011 reflecting on his own life with its farewells and departures, he created ‘Temporary Sculpture 2 “The Last of…..” ’.The temporary Sculpture is a sailing boat made of a wooden box which could be used for packing. On the sides are signifiers of something precious; grape earrings, coins or just bling? The copper nails through stainless steel washers conjur rivets used in shipbuilding together with coinage . The sailing boat is like a child’s boat as opposed to an actual model boat. The photographs/ sails reference images of North South. Animals are often part of relocations, as in Noah’s Ark; here they serve also as evoking childhood.
The paraphrenalia of relocation is very much in evidence. The two objects inside the box are symbols of Consett Bay – a ceramic cast of shoreline coral and a very raw unidentifiable biological mass. The bird’s nesting box at the top of the mast could also references home and family and the precariousness of it all?” Curator, Queen’s Park Gallery, Barbados.
From the exhibition ‘1.1.11 ETC’ at the Queen’s Park Gallery, Barbados.
Photography, William St James Cummins
Leaning Column, 2008. Mixed media temporary construction.
Nick was born in Birmingham, England in 1953 and completed his Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1977 followed by a Fellowship in Painting at Sunderland Polytechnic in 1978.
