The Sheds Gallery at Devon Sculpture Park is currently showing Chris Speyer’s mixed media environmental art exhibition ‘EARTH WORK’.
Each piece in Earth Work began with a found, naturally formed object. The works in the Sheds Gallery fall into two groups, those that combine ceramic with found wood, and those whose forms were inspired by examining the regenerative parts of plants, reflecting the regenerative nature of the rewilding movement. In this latter group is “Nutshell”, which grew from a beechnut, “Teasel” from that plant’s seedpod, and “Husk” from the outer skin of a bulb.
Those in the former group are “The Natural Curiosity of Branches”, “Swing Time”, “Theriomorph”, “Limb” and “Trunk”. With these pieces I used extruded, thrown and modelled ceramic additions to extend forms that Nature had sculpted. A palette of glazes, based on the colours and textures of lichens and fungi, provided surfaces that mirror the symbiotic relationships that exist between trees, fungi and alga and that underpin healthy ecosystems.
The non-ambulatory nature of trees inclines us to think of them as static and non-sentient. In both “The Natural Curiosity of Branches” and “Swing Time” I endeavour to portray the constant reaching, exploring, slow-motion arboreal dance of forests and copses. In “Theriomorph” we have the wild, unrelenting, animating, vital force that drives all life on Earth.
‘EARTH WORK’ by Chris Speyer will be showing at Devon Sculpture Park until 31 May 2022.
‘LOOKING FOR CLUES’ by Terry Howe, 2020/21
The previous exhibition was ‘Looking for Clues’ by British conceptual environmental artist, Terry Howe. See below.
Terry is a conceptual, environmental artist who uses found materials from skips, hedgerows, beaches and tips. He helps us examine the world around us.
The detail in Terry’s work is extraordinary. He literally wants us to peer into his world.
