Scroll down to see mixed media projects in outdoor situations.
'THE CELESTIAL KITCHEN' Steel and concrete
One of a series of sculptures made for Wynyard Woodland Park. This one relates to the Planetarium and Observatory, which are housed within the park.
The measuring spoon has a piece of string conveniently placed, so that it works as an ‘hour measure’ or sundial
The holes in the colander show the stars and constellations of the northern hemisphere.
At the equinoxes, the shadow of the plate falls exactly on the East/West axis all day long.
Each of the giant kitchen implements has a reference to the stars, the sun or various celestial movements.
Looking through the hole in the handle of the teaspoon, the viewer, will see the Pole or North star through the hole in the large serving spoon.
The holes of the giant draining ladle show the constellations of the southern hemisphere.
'EYE OF THE WIND'
Sited on a prestigious new business park in Tyneside this first appears as a tall, abstract sculpture, with a ‘hat stand’ to one side.
On closer inspection there is a label on the hat stand asking the viewer to look through a small aperture, which gives a different view of the sculpture
…….a representation of a ladder leading to a window, with a flower in a bottle and a curtain caught in the breeze.
‘STELL' Stone, steel, oak and concrete.
On the floor is a concrete rug showing a map of the nearby Kielder Reservoir and the river valley as it was before it’s flooding.
The rugged Northumbrian landscape is covered with stone pens, known locally as ‘stells’, used to protect and contain the flocks of hill sheep. This ‘Stell’, although built in the same tradition, has a different function. Inside, the dry stone walls become the backs and arms for two large sofa’s with carved stone cushions offering a very domestic seating area for humans in this wild landscape. Draped over them are steel ‘antimacassar's with lace like designs, based on pictures drawn by the local community, cut and etched in them.
The homesteads which disappeared are marked and named. So the sculpture refers to past and present.
'NEW MOON RISING' Steel and Glass
'DRAGONFLY SUNDIAL' Bronze
The shadow of the envelope shows the time, marked by the folds in the paper. Opposite, also in bronze, is a Dragonfly folded from paper.
A collaborative work with poet Linda France.
‘I am the Dragonfly of day, dancing light and dark.’
Cast in bronze are two folded pieces of paper, as if someone had been doing origami, and an envelope wedge between the stone slabs.
In an adjacent part of the garden is another bronze envelope and a piece of paper on which is written Linda's poem.
‘THE STORY TELLERS TRUNK’ STEEL AND OAK
The internal patterns and the travel labels were designed by local school children.
Sited in a wood by a disused rail line, now a cycle/walkway, this seat is a trunk like the ones that would have been used by rail passengers, which can be unlocked and opened to form a seat.
‘ALWAYS OPEN GATES’ STEEL
Two steel bicycles flank a pair of gates that look half open even when they are closed. Made for a new business centre on St.Peters Riverside in Sunderland.
‘SHADOWS IN A ANOTHER LIGHT’ STEEL, STONE, CONCRETE, ETC.
Massive nuts, bolts and rivets along the riverside; a steel tree built like a crane and a strange pattern inlaid into the paving. This work is based on the old shipbuilding industry that once thrived here in Sunderland and the new life that has sprung from it’s regeneration.
The tree is the symbol of new life from the old cranes. The pattern on the ground, when viewed in a mirror by the tree’s base, is a ‘shadow’ of those cranes that once stood here.
‘HAT TRICK’ STEEL & ELM
A seat commissioned for some newly-weds. A steel bench with two steel hats attached so that no one can sit down, but a catch on the side releases each seat so that it can be turned over to provide two wooden ‘cushions’ to sit on.
