'Ocean Cathedral', Art and Life series Photograph

'Ocean Cathedral' was exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea (SxS) Bondi Sydney 2013 and SxS Cottelsoe Perth 2014. They were two separately made physical structures. This photo was taken at Cottesloe. The statement originally submitted to SxS read: 'Ocean Cathedral' is a sculpture integral to the landscape/ seascape. Although suggestive of the stability of stone window tracery, it is transitory and ephemeral; the structure sways and bends with the wind; it is created on-site and then similarly disassembled. The view through, as if the magnificence of stained glass in a high vaulted Cathedral, is of the real, sparkling, deeply coloured powerful ocean, and vault of the sky. The view through, is infinite and too great for our senses to truly comprehend. Newly cut green bamboo, lashed with plant-tie cord, 4.9m x 2.7m x 0.1m. Ephemeral. The two exhibition sites: Each sculpture was not only the physical structure but also visually encompassed the landscape and seascape viewed through the window structure to the horizon. Each had a quite different visual look and feel. SxS Bondi 2013 sited 'Ocean Cathedral' high up in Marks Park on grass, with a powerful view through to the ocean and sky. Contrastingly, 'Ocean Cathedral' Cottesloe 2014, was sited on the beach near to the high tide line, and was positioned at the northern and most solitary area of the exhibition. This gave a dramatic view through of the beach, ocean, sky and horizon, which worked extremely well enhancing its meaning. My work is most often a personal response to a specific place; a combination of the visual I see before me, what I feel there, and ideas such as perhaps the local history. As a UK artist also with Australian roots I had in the past visited, photographed and felt a strong affinity with natural aspects of the coastal trail that is the setting for the annual SxS Bondi exhibition. 'Ocean Cathedral' Bondi 2013 was conceived out of those photographs, of the rock platforms, the powerful deep blue ocean swell, all merging at the horizon into the sky. The sense of vastness, power, grandeur and transience brought the outline shape of a cathedral window into my mind. This was the origin of 'Ocean Cathedral'. My work uses materials and processes as seem appropriate to the meaning of each individual piece of work. For me they are as important as the finished piece and need to be congruent with the feelings and ideas inherent in the work. There are also of course (secondary) practicalities such as how and where to make the work, shipping, sourcing materials, and costs as factors. I experimented initially at home in the UK with a full scale mock-up of the 'window' using hazel wood poles, which are normally used as bean poles in the vegetable garden. When stood upright it swayed in the wind and I intuitively knew I was 'on the right track'. Further research, and I found a bamboo nursery (Jungle Giants) who kindly supplied me with 6 metre lengths of green (newly cut) bamboo to make a second mock-up. Bamboo was also a material I knew I could source and use in Australia. I considered other materials, particularly metal and fibreglass, but for the sculpture to feel congruent with the natural landscape and seascape to which it was referring and to become part, it needed to be both of natural materials, and flexible in the wind. During my research into using bamboo, I also learned about its longevity and durability and that it would, with no treatment, decay within months. This felt appropriate and in keeping with the idea of life cycles in the natural world, and the transitory and mutable nature of sea and sky; the 'infinite' as difficult to comprehend. I wanted everything about the sculpture to allude to aspects of life for which we often do not have words. I therefore decided to let the bamboo decay, or with finite exhibition time, that I would disassemble and remove the work as if it had 'decayed'. In practice, the life of a green (newly cut) bamboo sculpture varies with factors such as the species of bamboo, any preservative treatment used, the country situated (whether anti-termite footings if in Australia) and subsequent care and maintenance given. The bamboo 'trial' sculpture made at the nursery here in the UK, stood for at least 18 months (it used chunky thick walled bamboo, and the UK doesn't have termites!). The sculpture that was made for SxS Bondi 2013 remained in Marks Park after the exhibition closed and fell to the ground after about 8 weeks. I suspect the rather thin walled bamboo I sourced probably rotted at ground level, but its sculptural life was more than the time of the exhibition and included its natural decay. The Cottesloe 2014 sculpture now sits in a Perth friend's vegetable garden greying and decaying slowly in keeping with my ethos for the sculpture. However, an artwork or a sculpture is more than about being able to see it, and its physical and enduring presence. It is more than an object. It is more even than whether a photo continues to exist long after the original work has 'gone'. It is about each person's individual response and experience of the piece of art. The experience can be personally uniquely meaningful, and may be re-experienced when a person is attracted to view other art, or re-experienced in different situations; a person may have felt something new in themselves, and added to their sense of who they are. Added to their well-being. I am interested in Man's relationship with the world in which he lives, and the timeless quality of aspects of human life, that can carry significant and deep meaning in our lives (i.e. can contribute to good mental health). For me, one such is the vastness of the ocean, and the infinite distance to the horizon viewed through the shape of a cathedral window. My sculpture at both SxS Bondi 2013 and SxS Cottesloe 2014 seemed to 'strike a chord' for a lot of people who spoke to me and whom I watched moving around my sculptures. We do not have to rationalise why a sculpture or a piece of art may 'strike a chord'. Visual art negates the intellectual brain, but can still provide a sense of meaning. I feel that humanity in general, human societies, and we as individuals, have a fundamental need to 'remember'. We need to 'remember' from our instincts, for our own well-being, that we all have 'connections' to the natural earth, sky and oceans, however separate, 'civilised' and 'technological' we now appear this new millennium. Maybe if we can improve humanity's mental health, the health of the earth, oceans and sky may follow? At the time of writing this, 5 years after the exhibitions, this work continues to resonate for me. Most recently I have also become aware of the joy of the collaborative relationships involved in taking this work from initial inspiration and idea, through to fully built international exhibition sculpture.

Photography:Digital on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:8 W x 12 H x 0.1 D in

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