Conduit Sculpture

Simon Tayler has a fascination with form and function, whether natural, organic or manmade, that has involved him in a lifetime of making things. He studied Fine Art Sculpture at Liverpool School of Art and was awarded the prestigious John Moores Scholarship on graduation. After a brief stint as an art school lecturer he has spent many years working in the Film and TV industry as a special effects designer working on many high-profile projects for a wide variety of clients, all the time building up an extensive knowledge of materials and techniques whilst also continuing the development of his own work. His sculptures are extraordinary and otherworldly, bordering on the ambiguous and are yet somehow familiar, perhaps inviting the viewer to weave their own stories and ideas around them. Some are reminiscent of obscure machines but if this makes them sound cold and analytical it is not the case, there is a profound interest in materials and form and he is preoccupied with the way things work together and how this can carry feeling and emotion. Working mainly in wood at his London studio his sculpture integrates a mix of references from the natural world combined with mechanical, almost architectural, elements. Together these form a complex language of self-expression. He explains; ‘Form has meaning, materials have meaning. They can express something without being directly representational. I use shapes and materials to express an emotional state or a stream of consciousness. Sometimes a simple snapshot of being, other times a state of indecision or equivocation but always worked out live as the work takes shape in a process that a musician might call improvisation’